"I shall be cross if I choose, Leonora," said Mrs. Mortomley. "It is enough to make any one cross. What right has Mr. Werner--for it is Mr. Werner, I know, who has really spoken to me through your mouth--what right has he, I repeat, to dictate to us how we shall spend our money. If he likes to have horrid, tiresome, vulgar, prosy people at his house--when he might get pleasant people--that is his affair. I do not interfere with him--(only I will not go to your parties)--but he has no sort of claim to dictate to us, and I will not bear it, Nora, I will not." "Dolly, dear, I was only speaking for your good--" "I do not want good spoken to me," interrupted Mrs. Mortomley. "And it is not for your good," went on Mrs. Werner calmly, "that you should have Antonia and Rupert quartered here. If your husband had given them say a couple of hundred pounds a year, they would have thought far more of his generosity, and it would have cost you less than half what it will do now, besides being wiser in every way." "Had not you better lay that statement before him yourself?" asked Dolly. "If I were his wife I should unhesitatingly," was the reply. "Well, I am his wife and I will not," declared Dolly. "If he likes to have them in the house I cannot see why he should not, so long as they do not make their proximity disagreeable to me; and I am not likely to let them do that, am I, Nora?" "So long as you have your house filled with company, and are out at parties continually, perhaps not."