to
her mind, and the words heaped themselves upon her tongue, she could
not keep herself from the one subject which she should have left
untouched. Mr. Furnival was not the man to bear any interference such
as this, or to permit the privacy of Lincoln's Inn to be invaded even
by his wife. His brow grew very black, and his eyes became almost
bloodshot. The port wine which might have worked him to softness, now
worked him to anger, and he thus burst forth with words of marital
vigour:

"Let me tell you once for ever, Kitty, that I will admit of no
interference with what I do, or the people whom I may choose to
see in my chambers in Lincoln's Inn. If you are such an infatuated
simpleton as to believe--"

"Yes; of course I am a simpleton; of course I am a fool; women always
are."

"Listen to me, will you?"

"Listen, yes; it's my business to listen. Would you like that I
should give this house up for her, and go into lodgings somewhere? I
shall have very little objection as matters are going now. Oh dear,
oh dear, that things should ever have come to this!"

"Come to what?"

"Tom, I could put up with a great deal,--more I think than most
women; I could slave for you like a drudge, and think nothing about
it. And now that you have got among grand people, I could see you go
out by yourself without thinking much about that either. I am very
lonely sometimes,--very; but I could bear that. Nobody has longed to
see you rise in the world half so anxious as I have done. But, Tom,
when I know what your goings on are with a nasty, sly, false woman
like that, I won't bear it; and there's an end." In saying which
final words Mrs. Furnival rose from her seat, and thrice struck her
hand by no means lightly on the loo table in the middle of the room.

"I did not think it possible that you should be so silly. I did not
indeed."

"Oh, yes, silly! very well. Women always are silly when they mind
that kind of thing. Have you got anything else to say, sir?"

"Yes, I have; I have this to say, that I will not endure this sort of
usage."

"Nor I won't," said Mrs. Furnival; "so you may as well understand it
at once. As long as there was nothing absolutely wrong, I would put
up with it for the sake of appearances, and because of Sophia. For
myself I don't mind what loneliness I may have to bear. If you had
been called on to go out to the East Indies or even to China, I could
have put up with it. But this sort of thing I won't put up w