“Lovely hands!” he murmured, taking them in his own.  “You have unusually pretty hands, Eunice; it would be a pity to use them to earn money.”

“Yet that is my intention.  I shall get money by the work of these hands.  It will be in a way that you will not approve, but you have forfeited your right to approve or disapprove.”

“That I have not!  I am your husband—­you have promised to obey me—­”

“A mere form of words—­it meant nothing!”

“Our marriage ceremony meant nothing?”

“If it did, remember that you endowed me with all your worldly goods—­”

“And I give them to you, too!  Do you know that nine-tenths of my yearly expenditures are for your pleasure and benefit!  I enjoy our home, too, but it would not be the elaborate, luxurious establishment that it is, but that it suits your taste to have it so!  And then, you whine and fret for what you yourself call a paltry matter!  Ingrate!”

“Don’t you dare call me ingrate!  I owe you no gratitude!  Do you give me this home as a charity?  As a gift, even!  It is my right!  And it is also my right to have a bank account of my own!  It is my right to uphold my head among other women who laugh at me, who ridicule me, because, with all your wealth, I have no purse of my own!  I will not stand it!  I rebel!  And you may rest assured things are going to be different hereafter.  I will get money—­”

“You shall not!” Embury grasped the wrists of the hands he still held, and his face was fiercely frowning.  “You are my wife, and whatever you may or may not owe to me, you owe it to our position, to our standing in the community to do nothing beneath your dignity or mine!”

“You care nothing for my dignity, for my appearance before other women, so why should I consider your dignity?  You force me to it, and it is therefore your fault if I—­”

“What is it you propose to do?  How are you going to get this absurd paltry sum you are making such a fuss about?”

“That I decline to tell you—­”

“Don’t you dare to do needlework or anything that would make me look foolish.  I forbid it!”

“And I scorn your forbidding!  Make you look foolish, indeed!  When you make me look foolish every day of my life, because I can’t do as other women do—­can’t have what other wives have—­”

“Now, now, Tiger, don’t make such a row over nothing—­let’s talk it over seriously—­”

“There’s nothing to talk over.  I’ve asked you time and again for an allowance of money—­real money, not charge accounts—­and you always refuse—­”

“And always shall, if you are so ugly about it!  Why must you fly into a rage over it?  Your temper is—­”

“My temper is roused by your cruelty—­”

“Cruelty!”

“Yes; it’s as much cruelty as if you struck me!  You deny me my heart’s dearest wish for no reason whatever—­”

“It’s enough that I don’t approve of an allowance—­”