He laughed at her--the loud, coa.r.s.e Josh Craig outburst. "You"re stark mad on the subject of cla.s.s distinctions, aren"t you?" said he. "You"ll learn some day to look on that sort of thing as you would on an attempt to shovel highways and set up sign-posts in the open sea. Your kind of people are like the children that build forts out of sand at the seash.o.r.e. Along comes a wave and washes it all away.... You"d be willing for me to abandon my career and become a rich nonent.i.ty in New York?"
His tone was distinctly offensive. "I don"t look at it in that way,"
said she coldly. "Really, I care nothing about it." And she resumed the reading of her letter.
"Do you expect me to believe," demanded he, excited and angry--"do you expect me to believe you"ve not given the subject of our future a thought?"
She continued reading. Such a question in such a tone called for the rebuke of an ignoring silence. Also, deep down in her nature, down where the rock foundations of courage should have been but were not, there had begun an ominous trembling.
"You know what my salary is?"
"You just mentioned it."
"You know it"s to be only five hundred dollars a year more after January?"
"I knew the Cabinet people got eight thousand." She was gazing dreamily out toward the purple horizon, seemed as far as its mountains from worldliness.
"Hadn"t you thought out how we were to live on that sum? You are aware I"ve practically nothing but my salary."
"I suppose I ought to think of those things--ought to have thought of them," replied she with a vague, faint smile. "But really--well, we"ve been brought up rather carelessly--I suppose some people would call it badly--and--"
"You take me for a fool, don"t you?" he interrupted roughly.
She elevated her eyebrows.
"I wish I had a quarter for every row between your people and your grandmother on the subject of money. I wish I had a dollar for every row you and she have had about it."
He again vented his boisterous laugh; her nerves had not been so rasped since her wedding day. "Come, Margaret," he went on, "I know you"ve been brought up differently from me. I know I seem vulgar to you in many ways. But because I show you I appreciate those differences, don"t imagine I"m an utter a.s.s. And I certainly should be if I didn"t know that your people are human beings."
She looked guilty as well as angry now. She felt she had gone just the one short step too far in her aristocratic a.s.sumptions.
He went on in the tone of one who confidently expects that there will be no more nonsense: "When you married me you had some sort of idea how we"d live."
"I a.s.sumed you had thought out those things or you"d not have married me," cried she hotly. In spite of her warnings to herself she couldn"t keep cool. His manner, his words were so inflammatory that she could not hold herself from jumping into the mud to do battle with him. She abandoned her one advantage--high ground; she descended to his level.
"You knew the sort of woman I was," she pursued. "You undertook the responsibility. I a.s.sume you are man enough to fulfill it."
He felt quite at home with her now. "And you?" rasped he. "What responsibility did YOU undertake?"
She caught her breath, flamed scarlet.
"Now let us hear what wife means in the dictionary of a lady. Come, let"s hear it!"
She was silent.
"I"m not criticising," he went on; "I"m simply inquiring. What do you think it means to be a wife?"
Still she could think of no answer.
"It must mean something," urged he. "Tell me. I"ve got to learn some time, haven"t I?"
"I think," said she, with a tranquil haughtiness which she hoped would carry off the weakness of the only reply she could get together on such short notice, "among our sort of people the wife is expected to attend to the social part of the life."
He waited for more--waited with an expression that suggested thirst. But no more came. "Is that all?" he inquired, and waited again--in vain.
"Yes?... Well, tell me, where in thunder does the husband come in? He puts up the cash for the wife to spend in dressing and amusing herself--is that all?"
"It is generally a.s.sumed," said she, since she had to say something or let the case go against her by default, "that the social side of life can be very useful in furthering a man."
He vented a scornful sound that was like a hoot. "In furthering a lick-spittle--yes. But not a MAN!"
"Our ideas on some subjects are hopelessly apart."
She suddenly realized that this whole conversation had been deliberately planned by him; that he had, indeed, been debating within himself their future life, and that he had decided that the time was ripe for a frank talk with her. It angered her that she had not realized this sooner, that she had been drawn from her position, had been forced to discuss with him on his own terms and at his own time and in his own manner. She felt all the fiery indignation of the schemer who has been outwitted.
"Your tone," said she, all ice, "makes it impossible for a well-bred person to discuss with you. Let us talk of something else, or of nothing at all."
"No. Let"s thresh it out now that we"ve begun. And do try to keep your temper. There"s no reason for anger. We"ve got to go back to civilization. We"ve got to live after we get there. We want to live comfortably, as satisfactorily for both as our income permits. Now, what shall we do? How shall we invest our eight thousand a year--and whatever your grandmother allows you? I don"t need much. I"ll turn the salary over to you. You"re entirely welcome to all there is above my board and clothes."
This sounded generous and, so, irritated Margaret the more. "You know very well we can"t live like decent people on twelve or fifteen thousand a year in Washington."
"You knew that before you married me. What did you have in mind?"
Silence.
"Why do you find it difficult to be frank with me?"
His courteous, appealing tone and manner made it impossible to indulge in the lie direct or the lie evasive. She continued silent, raging inwardly against him for being so ungenerous, so ungentlemanly as to put her in such a pitiful posture, one vastly different from that she had prearranged for herself when "the proper time" came.
"You had something in mind," he persisted. "What is it?"
"Grandmother wishes us to live with her," she said with intent to flank.
"Would you like that?" he inquired; and her very heart seemed to stand still in horror at his tone. It was a tone that suggested that the idea was attractive!
She debated. He must be "bluffing"--he surely must. She rallied her courage and pushed on: "It"s probably the best we can do in the circ.u.mstances. We"d have almost nothing left after we"d paid our rent if we set up for ourselves. Even if I were content to pinch and look a frump and never go out, you"d not tolerate it."
"Nothing could be more galling," said he, after reflecting, "than what people would say if we lived off your grandmother. No, going there is unthinkable. I like her, and we"d get on well together--"
Margaret laughed. "Like two cats drowning in a bag."
"Not at all," protested he sincerely. "Your grandmother and I understand each other--better than you and I--at least, better than you understand me. However, I"ll not permit our being dependents of hers."
Margaret had a queer look. Was not her taking enough money from the old lady to pay all her personal expenses--was not that dependence?
"We"ll return to that later," continued he, and she had an uncomfortable sense that he was answering her thought. "To go back to your idea in marrying me. You expected me to leave politics."
"Why do you think that?" exclaimed she.
"You told me."