He
had thrown his hat into a chair, and his fingers worked nervously
together behind his back.
'Will you tell me,' he said at length, 'how your position is
regarded by these friends of yours? I don't mean your mother and
brother, but the people who come to this house.'
'I have not asked such people for their opinion.'
'Still, I suppose some sort of explanation has been necessary in
your intercourse with them. How have you represented your
relations with me?'
'I can't see that that concerns you.'
'In a manner it does. Certainly it matters very little to me how
I am thought of by people of this kind, but one doesn't like to
be reviled without cause. Have you allowed it to be supposed that
I have made life with me intolerable for you?'
'No, I have not. You insult me by asking the question, but as you
don't seem to understand feelings of that kind I may as well
answer you simply.'
'Then have you told them the truth? That I became so poor you
couldn't live with me?'
'I have never said that in so many words, but no doubt it is
understood. It must be known also that you refused to take the
step which might have helped you out of your difficulties.
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