And he called another hansom cab. I did think of the expense, two hansom cabs in one day, but in the state of mind in which I was I didn't feel as if I could get into an omnibus, and sit straight up in it, with the people staring at me all the way. It only wanted a very little to make me behave like a silly. I don't believe I spoke a dozen words the whole way. Mr. FitzHoward kept trying to make me. He was the most persevering man I ever met. But I wouldn't. So, as soon as we got in he said sarcastically: 'Well, we have had a nice little talk! You're about the most talkative woman I've had the pleasure of knowing. You can be silent in one language, at any rate.' 'Mr. FitzHoward, how much do I owe you for that hansom cab?' 'Owe me? Nothing. The cab was mine.' 'You paid going, and I'll pay coming back. You gave the cabman eighteenpence--because I saw you. There's the money. I'll be beholden to no man except my husband.' I put a shilling and a sixpence on the table. He looked at the coins, and then he looked at me. Then he took them up. 'Oh, all right. I'm willing. Money's always welcome. It doesn't look as if I was going to make much out of your husband, so I don't see why I should lose on you. Besides, I can buy something with it for those two little kids of yours. I don't suppose you can prevent my doing that. Now, Mrs. Merrett, let's understand each other, you and I. What did Mr. John Smith say when you put that question?' 'Nothing.' 'Nothing! You don't mean that! You don't mean that you didn't get an answer out of him after all! Then hang me if I don't go right straight back.' 'I mean that he knows nothing. At least that's what he says.' 'And do you believe him?' Then I was just the silly I expected. I sat down at the table and cried as if I'd nothing else to do. Presently I felt a hand upon my shoulder. It was Mr. FitzHoward. 'Now then, none of that! Do you hear? Stop it! It's only my nonsense. I exaggerate; it's a professional habit I've got into. It's a kind of second nature; so that people who don't know me think that I mean more than I really do. I believe your husband's as sound and well at this moment as I am.' 'I don't know what to believe.' 'But I do; don't I tell you that he's as sound and well as I am?' 'First you say one thing, and then you say another.'