"Yes," she admitted, "you are very rough with me." And she sat a few moments, looking down at the floor, her little hands trembling on her lap. But presently she moved again. She pushed one of the cushions up in the sofa-arm and laid her cheek against it, with a half-sigh of weariness relieved and a half-smile. "Go on!" she said. "After all,--since I have reflected,--I think I don't dislike it. New things always please me,--for a little while,--and this is new. No one ever spoke to me so before. I wonder whether it was because I did not really deserve it or because people were afraid?" Tredennis stopped in the walk he had begun and wheeled sharply about, fronting her with his disproportionately stern gaze. "Do you want to know why _I_ do it?" he demanded. "I think--since I have reflected--that it is for the sake of--of the other Bertha." There was a slight pause. "Of the other Bertha," she said after it, in a low, unsteady tone. "Of the Bertha who thought it an impossibility that she should be anything but happy." He had not been prepared for her replies before, but he was startled by what she did now. She left her seat with a sudden, almost impassioned, action; the cushion fell upon the floor. She put her hand upon the mantel, as if to support herself. "Why did you say that?" she exclaimed. "I do not like it! I do not like to be reminded that it is so long since--since I was worth liking. I suppose that is what it means. Why should you seem to accuse me when you say you speak for the sake of the other Bertha? Am I so bad? You have lived a quiet life because you liked it best; I did not chance to like it best, and so I have been gay. I go out a great deal and am fond of the world, but do I neglect my children and treat my husband badly? Richard is very happy, and Jack and Janey and Meg enjoy themselves and are very fond of me. If I was careless of them, and ill-tempered to Richard, and made my home unhappy, you might accuse me. It is the most mysterious thing to me, but I always feel as if I was defending myself against you, even when you only look at me and do not speak at all. It--it is a curious position! I do not understand it, and I do not like it!"