Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/269

 "I cruel to you! Oh, you fool! Why do you have to spoil everything?"

He went up the stairs slowly and wearily. She followed. When he reached the studio, he walked to a window and stood looking out. He was so miserable that he would almost have liked to throw himself out of the window and get his neck broken.

He even considered the notion.

Anne came and leaned against him. "I am sorry," she said. "I'll never do it again."

"I've heard that before."

"But this time I am serious. I mean it."

"When I am depressed and unhappy, instead of trying to help me, you stage a terrible scene. It is intolerable. You ought to be whipped."

"I know I ought. And if you really whipped me and hurt me it might make me behave. Women who are beaten occasionally are nearly always well behaved. I wish you would whip me."

"You know that I won't . . . I am going to tell you why I have been so depressed. Miss Ruggles is going to marry my brother, and she will be very unhappy."

"That is nothing to me."

"No. You have no heart where anyone but yourself is concerned. But I've known her ever