It was within an hour of dinner-time, and in painful suspense she waited his arrival.

Various plans for subduing the excitement which she saw would be created in his mind, and for reconciling him to the expense of the carpets, were thought over by Mrs.Ellis: among those was a proposition that he should give a note for the bill, which she would pay, when it matured, out of savings from her weekly allowance of money.
"I can and will do it," said Mrs.Ellis, resolutely: her thought dwelt longer and longer on this suggestion.

"I hope he will not be too angry to listen to what I have to say, when he comes home and sees the carpet.

He's rather hasty sometimes." While in the midst of such thoughts, Mrs.Ellis, who had left the parlour, heard the shutting of the street-door, and the tread of her husband in the passage.

Glancing at the timepiece on the mantel, she saw that it was half an hour earlier than he usually came home.