With hands which had never earned a shilling thrust into pockets empty even of that coin, Jim Kaimes stretched out his long legs and surveyed his neat boots as he made this cryptic speech. His habit of expressing himself in a parabolic fashion was confusing to his friends. But five years of marital squabbling had schooled his wife into ready comprehension, and she usually responded without comment. On this occasion, however, the subject under discussion irritated even her healthy nerves, and she replied irrelevantly. "Really, Jim, I wish you would talk English." "Huh! Never knew I was talking Choctaw." "You might be, for all the sense an ordinary person can make of it." "Ah-a-a!" said Jim, with the clumsy affection of a bear; "but you're not an ordinary person, Leah. I'm the common or garden ass, that can't straighten things. Now you can." "For want of a husband I suppose I must." "Come now, Leah. Am I not your husband?" "Oh yes!" she answered, with a flick of her handkerchief across a pair of scornful lips: "_my_ husband, not _a_ husband." "What's the difference?" "As if I could waste time in explaining. We have more serious matters to talk about than your want of brains." "Serious enough," assented the man, sulkily; "but you know how to deal with trouble, Leah." "I ought to," retorted his wife, with a shrug, "considering the experience I have had since marrying you. I wish I hadn't." "So do I," confessed Jim; then mended his speech with a dim sense of having overstepped the mark: "No, by Jupiter, I don't mean that. You an' I get on very well, considerin' each swings on a private hook. You are not a bad sort, Leah, and I'm a--a--a--well, you know what I am." "Not a diplomatist, certainly. Isn't this praise a trifle obvious? You don't mean it, do you?" She looked at him wistfully, but her candid husband soon stopped any sentimental illusions she may have momentarily entertained. "Oh yes, I mean it in a sort of way. An' good temper on both sides will help us to push through the business quicker." "You mean the Bankruptcy Court," snapped his wife. "Perhaps I mean the Divorce Court," was his tart reply, but she was quite ready with an answer. "On your own part, then; you can't say a word against me." "Who said I could? You've got the one virtue that gives its name to the rest, and think yourself an angel." "I had your assurance that I was an angel--once." "No doubt. It's the sort of thing a man has to say to the woman he is engaged to." "And never says to the woman he is married to!" "Marriage isn't all honey, Leah, and----" "Heavens!" Lady Jim addressed the ceiling; "as if I required telling. But compared with other women, Jim, I am not----" "I never said you were," interrupted Kaimes, crossly. "I'd screw your neck if you went on like other women." "Upon my word, Jim, I would admire you more if you did attempt something of that sort." "Sorry I can't oblige you; but I'm a gentleman and bear an honoured name."