that is, in accordance with her views, or else it was
intolerably wrong and without excuse. Poor Tom had been made to feel
that he had not only committed an almost unpardonable sin against his
wife and her cousin, but also against all the proprieties of life. "The
idea of such a wedding taking place in my rooms and with my husband's
sanction!" she had said with concentrated bitterness. Then had followed
what he was accustomed to characterize as a spell of "zero weather."
He discreetly said nothing. "It didn't seem such a bad idea to me," he
thought, "but then I suppose women folks know best about such things."

He was too frank in his nature to conceal from Holcroft his misgivings
or his wife's scornful and indignant disapproval. "Sorry Angy feels so
bad about it, Jim," he said ruefully, "but she says I mustn't buy
anything more of you."

"Or have anything more to do with me, I suppose?"

"Oh, come now! You know a man's got to let his women-folks have their
say about household matters, but that don't make any difference in my
feelings toward you."

"Well, well, Tom! If it did, I should be slow to quarrel with a man
who had done me as good a turn as you have. Thank the Lord! I've got
a wife that'll let me have some say about household and all other
matters. You, too, are inclined to think that I'm in an awful scrape.
I feel less like getting out of it every day. My wife is as
respectable as I am and a good sight better than I am. If I'm no
longer respectable for having married her, I certainly am better
contented than I ever expected to be again. I want it understood,
though, that the man who says anything against my wife may have to get
me arrested for assault and battery."

"When it comes to that, Jim," replied Watterly, who was meek only in
the presence of his wife, "I'd just as lief speak against her as wink
if there was anything to say. But I say now, as I said to you at
first, she aint one of the common sort. I thought well of her at
first, and I think better of her now since she's doing so well by you.
But I suppose marrying a woman situated as she was isn't according to
regulation. We men are apt to act like the boys we used to be and go
for what we want without thinking of the consequences."

"It's the consequences that please me most. If you had been dependent
on Mumpson, Malonys, and Wigginses for your home comfort you wouldn't
worry about the talk of people who'd never raise a finger for yo