He Made Her His Wife and Me His Secret

"I helped my best friend, Clara Bellamy, climb out of poverty and become a parish schoolteacher.

Now she was glowing, graceful, confident. No one would ever guess that five years ago, she was still picking eggs in a backyard chicken coop.

But she was still frugal. She always said money shouldn’t be wasted.

So whenever I was too busy, she gladly took the things I couldn’t use: free couple vacations I’d won, movie tickets about to expire, romantic restaurant reservations I’d already booked.