Page:Dale - A Marriage Below Zero.djvu/188

182 down with a hectic flush on one side of her face.

"Domestic troubles, of course," she said, satirically.

"Of course," I replied, with equal satire.

"Well?"

"You said you would help me when I needed your services. I need them now," I replied.

My mother meditated. I could see that she was unwilling to assist me. She dreaded anything happening which might give the matter publicity. In a word, she was afraid of me, and I admit, not without reason.

"I do not like interfering between man and wife," she began tentatively.

But I was equal to the occasion. The avalanche had started on its course, and nothing could now stop it.

"Very well," I said with palpably assumed indifference, "if you will not aid me in a matter concerning my happiness, I shall leave my husband at once."

As I said, my indifference was palpably assumed, but my mother was one of those who