d."

"You are shuffling with the truth, and you know it," she said sternly.
"You did not tell me you had made any arrangements with him, nor that you
intended to do so, only in a general way. You thought you'd catch me
before him when it came to signing the papers, and then you thought I
couldn't help myself."

"I have not tried to deceive you! I brought him here and explained every
detail," he said with such a righteous appearance of innocence that
Elizabeth was tempted to laugh. "We've fallen to a pretty state of affairs
when my own wife hints at my having lied to her," John insisted.

Elizabeth spoke slowly, measuring her words, realizing that the crisis of
their lives was upon them.

"I will not accuse you any more, but I will explain the plan on which I
will do business with you."

"You needn't bother," John interrupted sarcastically. "I will let you run
it."

"I will not go into debt," Elizabeth continued as calmly as if he had not
interrupted. "That is the absolute decision I have come to. You will not
explain to me _after_ you have decided to do a thing and in the presence
of other people, where my property and my freedom are concerned. On the
other hand, if you are determined to go into debt and branch out into a
larger business, I feel that I cannot deny you the right to do as you wish
with what is your own, and if you choose to do so will divide the property
and leave you as free to mortgage and sell as if you were not married to
me. I will leave you as free as I ask to be myself."

"Free! Free to be made a fool of. No, ma'am; you don't run any such gag as
that on me. The people in this community are only too anxious to talk
about me; they'd roll it under their tongues like a sweet morsel, that as
soon as you got hold of the money you put the screws on me. You gave
Johnson just such a handle this afternoon as that. You'll behave yourself,
and look after your house and child as a woman ought to do, and I'll take
charge of the work out of doors as a man ought to do."

Elizabeth interrupted him eagerly:

"Now right there, John, you have struck the very heart of the thing which
first made me feel that I must take care of myself in my own way. You have
never allowed me to bake a pie or a loaf of bread, nor churn, nor anything
without you told me how to do it; and then you feel that you have the
right to mortgage the home right over my head and think I have no rights
in the matter."

It was John's turn