A Honeymoon Incident.

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 920, 29 August 1896, Page 23

A Honeymoon Incident.

At a large outfitter's recently, a yonng couple who had just been, or were just about to be married, were selecting the bride's humble outfit. They came into the mantel department, and asked for spring capes. These they examined, gravely fingering the material, but the little bride resolutely glanced at the price-mark of each before she permitted it to be placed on her tender shoulders. As she stood arrayed in one after another, she glanced appealingly at her companion, and all garments which failed to elicit his approval were silently discarded. Finally the saleswoman brought out a cape of a different sort from the plain woollen garments she had been showing. It was of silk, trimmed with lace and a shimmer of jet. The little bride's eyes lighted up; she forgot all about the price mark, and turned eagerly to the glorified reflection in the mirror. Her eyes met his, and she blushed and smiled consciously. ' How do you like it ?' Bhe murmured. . ' That's the ticket, Nell,' he replied, with quick understanding. 'No need of looking any further.' ' Jsnt,' faltered the bride, the blush and the smile beginning to fade as she remember an essential consideration, ' 1 forgot to ask — how much is it ?' 'Forty-eight shillings. It's a great bargain — marked down because there are only a few odd sizes left,' glibly recited the saleswoman. The smile and the blush faded entirely. ' I can't pay over a sovereign,' faltered the -bride, turning to the pile of previously shown garments. Her disappointment touched a quick chord of tenderness in her companion. 1 Oh, come now, miss, that's too much,' he said to the saleswoman. ' 'Taint worth it. You just go and see what's the best you can do about it.' He winked significantly at her behind the back of the bride, who was privately disposing of a tear or two, and tapped his breast pocket. The saleswoman walked away, smiling broadly, with the cape over her arm, and the young fellow followed her behind a screen, where he hastily counted out twenty-eight shillings, including many sixpences, and some coppers. ' It's her weddin' cape, and I want her suited,' he explained. ' You come back in a minute and tell her she can have it for £1. Bay there ain't any more left, or something. Don't let on, now !' He winked again, and hastened back ta his companion, who turned a bravely smiling countenance upon him. ' After all, Jim,' she said, ' 'twouldn't 'a' worn very well. Don't you like this nice woollen one? 'No,' said he, uncompromisingly. 'I like that one with the shiners. They'll Jet you have it for a sovereign, too. 'Taint worth any more, anyway.' 4 Oh, Jim, they won't. I know they won't?' The saleswoman returned with the cape. ' We are nearly sold out,' she said.smilingly; ' and in consideration of it being part of a wedding trousseau, we can let you have it for £I.' The girl glowed rosy red, and glanced rapturously at her lover. Then, with trembling lingers, she pulled out her wellworn purse, while he coolly remarked, ' What'd I tell you ?' They were a poor, shabbily dressed, illiterate young couple, but what in the world has that to do with it ? The cape was a tawdry combination of poor silk, cotton lace, and cheap beads, and that has nothing to do with it, either. It was the eagerly made, though nnthanked and unrecognised sacrifice, the making another's pleasure one's own, the youth, the happiness, the ' love's young dream ' of it, that made the idyll.