“Hadn’t you better hush a little yourself?” she retorted. “You come home with twelve dollars in your pocket and tell your wife to hush! That’s nice? Why can’t you do what decent men do?” “What’s that?” “Why, give their wives something to live for. What do you give me, I’d like to know! Look at the clothes I wear, please!” “Well, it’s your own fault,” he muttered. “What did you say! Did you say it’s my fault I wear clothes any women I know wouldn’t be _seen_ in?” “Yes, I did. If you hadn’t made me get you that platinum ring----” “What!” she cried, and flourished her hand at him across the table. “Look at it! It’s platinum, yes; but look at the stone in it, about the size of a pinhead, so’s I’m ashamed to wear it when any of my friends see me! A hundred and sixteen dollars is what this magnificent ring cost you, and how long did I have to beg before I got even that little out of you? And it’s the best thing I own and the only thing I ever did get out of you!” “Oh, Lordy!” he moaned. “I wish you’d seen Charlie Loomis looking at this ring to-day,” she said, with a desolate laugh. “He happened to notice it, and I saw him keep glancing at it, and I wish you’d seen Charlie Loomis’s expression!” Collinson’s own expression became noticeable upon her introduction of this name; he stared at her gravely until he completed the mastication of one of the indigestibles she had set before him; then he put down his fork and said: “So you saw Charlie Loomis again to-day. Where?” “Oh, my!” she sighed. “Have we got to go over all that again?” “Over all what?” “Over all the fuss you made the last time I mentioned Charlie’s name. I thought we settled it you were going to be a little more sensible about him.” “Yes,” Collinson returned. “_I_ was going to be more sensible about him, because _you_ were going to be more sensible about him. Wasn’t that the agreement?” She gave him a hard glance, tossed her head so that the curls of her bobbed hair fluttered prettily, and with satiric mimicry repeated his question. “‘Agreement’! Wasn’t that the agreement! Oh, my, but you do make me tired, talking about ‘agreements’! As if it was a crime my going to a vaudeville matinée with a man kind enough to notice that my husband never takes me anywhere!” “Did you go to a vaudeville with him to-day?” “No, I didn’t!” she said. “I was talking about the time when you made such a fuss. I didn’t go anywhere with him to-day.” “I’m glad to hear it,” Collinson said. “I wouldn’t have stood for it.” “Oh, you wouldn’t?” she cried, and added a shrill laugh as further comment. “You ‘wouldn’t have stood for it’!” “Never mind,” he returned doggedly. “We went over all that the last time, and you understand me: I’ll have no more foolishness about Charlie Loomis.” “How nice of you! He’s a friend of yours; you go with him yourself; but your wife mustn’t even look at him, just because he happens to be the one man that amuses her a little. That’s fine!”