[_Disturbed but forced by his glance to reply._] Well, I'm you're wife, I have a right to know. BASIL. [_Bitterly._] You have such odd ideas about the duties of a wife, Jenny. They include reading my letters and following me in the street. But tolerance and charity and forbearance don't seem to come in your scheme of things. JENNY. [_Sullenly._] Why d'you want to write your letters elsewhere? BASIL. [_Shrugging his shoulders._] I thought I should be quieter. JENNY. I suppose I disturb you? BASIL. It's a little difficult to write when you're talking. JENNY. Why shouldn't I talk? D'you think I'm not good enough, eh? I should have thought I was more important than your letters. [BASIL _does not answer_. JENNY. [_Angrily._] Am I your wife or not? BASIL. [_Ironically._] You have your marriage lines carefully locked up to prove it. JENNY. Then why don't you treat me as your wife? You seem to think I'm only fit to see after the house and order the dinner and mend your clothes. And after that I can go and sit in the kitchen with the servant. BASIL. [_Moving again towards the door._] D'you think it's worth while making a scene? We seem to have said all this before so many times. JENNY. [_Interrupting him._] I want to have it out. BASIL. [_Bored._] We've been having it out twice a week for the last six months--and we've never got anywhere yet. JENNY. I'm not going to be always put upon, I'm your wife and I'm as good as you are. BASIL. [_With a thin smile._] Oh, my dear, if you're going in for women's rights, you may have my vote by all means. And you can plump for all the candidates at once if you choose. JENNY. You seem to think it's a joke. BASIL. [_Bitterly._] Oh no, I promise you I don't do that. It's lasted too long. And God knows where it'll end.... They say the first year of marriage is the worst; ours has been bad enough in all conscience. JENNY. [_Aggressively._] And I suppose you think it's my fault? BASIL. Don't you think we're both more or less to blame? JENNY. [_With a laugh._] Oh, I'm glad you acknowledge that you have something to do with it. BASIL. I tried to make you happy. JENNY. Well, you haven't succeeded very well. Did you think I was likely to be happy--when you leave me alone all day and half the night for your swell friends that I'm not good enough for? BASIL. That's not true. I hardly ever see any of my old friends. JENNY. Except Mrs. Murray, eh? BASIL. I've seen Mrs. Murray perhaps a dozen times in the last year. JENNY. Oh, you needn't tell me that. I know it. She's a lady, isn't she? BASIL. [_Ignoring the charge._] And my work takes me away from you. I can't always be down here. Think how bored you'd be. JENNY. A precious lot of good your work does. You can't earn enough money to keep us out of debt. BASIL.