me time she rose and closed the door, and clattered along the
entry and up stairs, upon the worn and ragged carpet. Mr. Alfred Dinks
returned to the parlor, pulled the bell violently, and when the sloppy
servant girl appeared, glaring at him with the staring eyes, he
immediately damned them, and wanted to know why in h---- he was kept
waiting for his boots. The staring eyes vanished, and Mr. Dinks
reclined upon the sofa, picking his teeth. Presently there was the
slop--slop--slop of the girl along the entry. She opened the door,
dropped the boots, and fled. Mr. Dinks immediately pulled the bell
violently, walking across the room a greater distance than to his boots.
Slop--slop again. The door opened.

"Look here! If you don't bring me my boots, I'll come and pull the hair
out of your head!" roared the master of the house.

The cowering little creature dashed at the boots with a wobegone look,
and brought them to the sofa. Mr. Dinks took them in his hand, and turned
them round contemptuously.

"G----! You call those boots blacked?"

He scratched his head a moment, enjoying the undisguised terror of the
puny girl.

"If you don't black 'em better--if you don't put a brighter shine on to
'em, I'll--I'll--I'll put a shine on your face, you slut!"

The girl seemed to be all terrified eye as she looked at him, and then
fled again, while he laughed.

"Ho! ho! ho! I'll teach 'em how--insolent curs! G---- d---- Paddies! What
business have they coming over here? Ho! ho! ho!"

Leaving his slippers upon the parlor floor, Mr. Dinks mounted to his room
and changed his coat. He tried the door of his wife's room as he passed
out, and found it locked. He kicked it violently, and bawled,

"Good-morning, Mrs. Dinks! If Miss Wayne calls, tell her I've gone to
tell Mr. Abel Newt that she repents, and wants to marry him; and I shall
add that, having been through the wood, she picks up a crooked stick at
last. Ho! ho! ho! (Kick.) Good-morning, Mrs. Dinks!"

He went heavily down stairs and slammed the front door, and was gone for
the day.

When they were first married, after the bitter conviction that there was
really no hope of old Burt's wealth, Fanny Dinks had carried matters with
a high hand, domineering by her superior cleverness, and with a
superiority that stung and exasperated her husband at every turn. Her
bitter temper had gradually entirely eaten away the superficial, stupid
good-humor of his younger days; and her fury o