"Stop!" I exclaimed, my voice ringing out so loudly that it astonished me, though I was too indignant and alarmed to pay any attention to it. "You have no right to talk in that manner to me, and I will not permit it. Captain Dillington's presence in this house was an affront to me, and he knows it if you do not. I still say I admire friendship, but when it causes a man to treat his wife with complete indifference and as a necessary incumbrance in his house, I retract and declare that I despise it—despise it from the bottom of my heart."
I turned my back upon him in silent disgust—silent, because in my bitter indignation I could say no more. Heaven knows that these angry words were called forth by himself. I would willingly have forgiven the first week of neglect and indifference, if with Captain Dillington's departure, he had shown the least sympathy for me. But to champion the cause of that intruder and disregard mine—I was no saint. He had slapped one cheek, but I would take good care that he should not slap the other.
"Have I treated you with neglect?" The
