"It is evident you feel no interest in the curtailment of my expenses." "I am sure that curtailment is not necessary. You gave your shareholders a dividend of ten-per-cent a short time ago, and you are always complaining that the business is too large for you to carry alone. And I do not see that there is the smallest curtailment in your personal expenses." "Pray what have you to do with my personal expenses?" "I speak of them because I personally have no expenses from which to draw conclusions." "I suppose you have as many personal expenses as any other woman. My mother thinks you have more." "Your mother grudges me the little food I eat. How much money have you given me during the six years I have been your wife?" "I have paid all your bills." "What kind of bills?" "All kinds." "No. You have paid for a physician when I was sick--nothing else. I have bought little new clothing, and what I have bought I paid for." "You did not require new clothing." "When it was to renew and alter, I paid all expenses with my own money." "_You! You have no money!_ All the money you have is mine. I have allowed you to use it for your personal expenses. Many husbands would not have done so." "It was my money, Robert. I made it before I even knew your name." "It was all my money the moment you were my wife." "It is all gone now. I had to borrow a sovereign from Ducie." "Good gracious! What an absurdity! What did you want with a sovereign? You have credit in half-a-dozen shops." "I wanted money, not credit. I cannot buy stamps, stationery, music, medicine, and many other things with credit. And the church wants cash always. I cannot pay church dues with credit. When I borrowed a sovereign from Ducie I wanted a prescription of Dr. Fleming's made up." "You have credit at Starkie's." "Starkie does not make up prescriptions. I had to send to Fraser's and I have no credit at Fraser's." Then he threw a sovereign on the table and said: "Pay Ducie at once. I do not want her chattering all over Glasgow and Kendal." "So you have decided to send Ducie away?" "Yes." "She is all that is left me of my old happy life. Oh, Robert, Robert! have some pity on me." "My mother and sister are giving up three servants. Surely you can relinquish one." "It is Scot in the stable, who gives up his helper. It is Jepson in the house, it is McNab in the kitchen. None of these three servants affect your mother's and sister's comfort in the least. Ducie is everything to David and myself. She keeps our rooms clean and comfortable, brings my breakfast, waits on me when I am sick, walks out with David when I am not able to do so, and in many other ways makes things more bearable. I beg you, Robert, not to send her away." "Then the other three servants must also remain." "You are not poor, you only feel poor because you spent so much on Christina." "Who was a wicked failure, and mother says you were the prompter of her sinful conduct."