Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/104

 Joseph laughed obstreperously, his wife’s brow lowering the while.

“Just tell me, can’t you?" she cried.

“Of course I will. The best joke you ever heard. You had yours yesterday, Mrs. Clem; my turn comes to-day. My share is—just nothing at all. Not a penny! Not a cent! Swallow that, old girl, and tell me how it tastes.”

“You’re a liar!” shouted the other, her face flushing scarlet, her eyes aflame with rage.

“Never told a lie in my life,” replied her husband, still laughing noisily. But for that last glass of cordial on the way home he could scarcely have enjoyed so thoroughly the dramatic flavour of the situation. Joseph was neither a bully nor a man of courage; the joke with which he was delighting himself was certainly a rich one, but it had its element of danger, and only by abandoning himself to riotous mirth could he overcome the nervousness with which Clem’s fury threatened to affect him. She, coming forward in the