are plenty of
servants.'

Fresh tea was brought, and after a brief absence Alma sat down to it.
Her health had improved during the past week, but she looked tired from
the journey, and was glad to lean back in her chair. For some minutes
neither of them spoke. Harvey had never seen an expression on Alma's
features which was so like hostility; it moved him to serious
resentment. It is common enough for people who have been several years
wedded to feel exasperation in each other's presence, but for Rolfe the
experience was quite new, and so extremely disagreeable, that his
pulses throbbed with violence, and his mouth grew dry. He determined to
utter not a word until Alma began conversation. This she did at length,
with painful effort.

'I think your answer to me was very unkind.'

'I didn't mean it so.'

'You simply said that you wouldn't do as I wished.'

'Not that I wouldn't, but that it was impossible. And I showed you the
reasons--though I should have thought it superfluous.'

Alma waited a moment, then asked----

'Is this house let?'

'I don't know. I suppose not.'

'Then there is no reason whatever why we shouldn't stay here.'

'There is every reason why we shouldn't stay here. Every arrangement
has been made for our leaving--everything fully talked over. What has
made you change your mind?'

'I haven't really changed my mind. I always disliked the idea of going
to Gunnersbury, and you must have seen that I did; but I was so much
occupied with--with other things; and, as I have told you, I didn't
feel quite the same about my position as I do now.'

She expressed herself awkwardly, growing very nervous. At the first
sign of distress in her, Harvey was able to change his tone.

'Things are going horribly wrong somehow, Alma. There's only one way
out of it. Just say in honest words what you mean. Why do you dislike
the thought of our moving?'

'I told you in my letter,' she answered, somewhat acridly.

'There was no explanation. You said something I couldn't understand,
about having a _right_ to ask me to stay here.'

She glanced at him with incredulous disdain.

'If you don't understand, I can't put it into plainer words.'

'Well now, let _me_ put the whole matter into plainer words than I have
liked to use.' Rolfe spoke deliberately, and not unkindly, though he
was tempted to give way to wrath at what he imagined a display of
ignoble and groundless jealousy. 'All along I have allowed you to tak