"You are right," he said. "I confess that my marriage has not been so uplifting as I had hoped. I daresay it is my own fault. As you point out, I am--well, all the Caledonian adjectives you heaped upon me just now: all that and a good deal more. I have the reputation of being a harsh man, and I hate it. I hoped, when I married that child, that she would pull me out of my rigid, undeviating way of life, and broaden my sympathies a little. I looked forward to a little domesticity." His dark face coloured slightly. "I may be an ogre, but I have my soft side, as you know." "None better," said the old lady gently. "Well, somehow," continued Juggernaut, "my marriage has not made the difference to me that I had hoped. We two have had our happy hours together, but we don't seem to progress beyond a certain point. We are amiability itself. If I ask Daphne to see to anything about the house, she sees to it; if she asks me to go with her to a tea-fight, I go. But that seems to be about the limit. I can't help thinking that marriage would not have survived so long as an institution if there had been no more behind it than that. I was under the impression that it made two one. At present we are still two--very decidedly two; and--and----" "And being you, it just maddens you not to be able to get your money's worth," said Mrs Carfrae calmly. "Now, John Carr, just listen to me. First of all, have you had any trouble with her?" "Trouble?" "Yes. Any direct disagreement with her?" "Never. Stop--we had one small breeze." Mrs Carfrae wagged a forefinger. "You have been bullying her, monster!" "Heavens, no!" "Well, tell me the story." "Six months ago," said Juggernaut, "she came to me and asked for money--much as a child asks for toffee--with a seraphic smile and an ingratiating rub up against my chair. I asked her what it was for." "Quite wrong!" said Mrs Carfrae promptly. "But surely----" began Juggernaut, the man of business up in arms at once. "You should have begun by taking out your cheque-book and saying, 'how much?'" continued his admonitress. "Then she would have called you a dear, or some such English term of affection, and recognising you as her natural confidant would have told you everything. After that you might have improved the occasion. As it was, you just put her back up, and she dithered." "She did, so far as I understand the expression. But, finding that I was firm----" "Oh, man, man, how can a great grown creature like you bear to be _firm_--_hard_, you mean, of course--with a wild unbroken lass like that? Well, go on. You were firm. And what did her poor ladyship say she wanted the money for?" "For her young cub of a brother," said Juggernaut briefly. "A wealthy young wife daring to want to help her own brother! Monstrous!" observed Mrs Carfrae.