Delia was a young pianist. Her husband, Joe, was a young artist. Each of them was taking lessons: Joe with a famous art teacher, and Delia with a great pianist from Germany. Their teachers were the very best, so lessons were expensive, more than they could really afford, but...when you love your art, nothing is too much. But soon the money began to run out, and they couldn't afford the lessons any more. Then one day Delia came back home and told Joe that she had met a man whose daughter, Sally, wanted to learn the piano, and he was going to pay her $ 50 an hour. "Delia," Joe said, "I'll be much happier if you keep up your lessons," Delia said it didn't matter. "When I've had some money, I'll continue." But Joe also decided to stop his lessons, to draw pictures and sell them. A few days later, Joe came home and proudly took $ 200 from his pocket. "I met a man from Vermont," he said, "who bought one of my pictures. And he wants to buy more!"  _ .They didn't have to worry any more about money. Then, one day, Joe came home and saw that Delia's hand was wrapped in a bandage . He asked her what had happened. "Oh," said Delia. "My student, Sally, asked me to make some coffee for her. I dropped the coffee and burned my hand. Sally went straight to the drugstore and got this bandage for me. " "Delia, what have you been doing the last two weeks?" Joe asked. She tried not to tell him, but the tears came. "Oh Joe, I couldn't get any students, so I worked as a waitress in a restaurant. Today, I burned my hand with hot water. So I can't work any more. But we'll still have money from the man in Vermont, won't we?" Joe looked at her. "There's no man in Vermont, " he said. "I've been working in a drugstore, and today someone came in to buy bandages for a woman who's burned her hand. So when I saw you, well, I guessed." They both laughed. [A story by O. Henry--adapted ] Both of them laughed in the end because   _  .
they would go on with their lessons soon they had both told lies to make the other happy they didn't have to worry about money any more they thought they had done something meaningless