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192 they barely spoke to one another or communicated by means of notes; when they accused one another of self-indulgence, selfishness, egotism; when Teresa bitingly recalled Basil's sensual weaknesses, and Basil openly regretted his bachelor freedom, and assured Teresa that she was never meant for a wife. These discords were frequent, but they never lasted long; neither could stand the strain. Basil could not work under it, and it blackened the entire firmament for Teresa. It ended usually in a passionate reconciliation, wherein Basil ardently told Teresa that he could not live without her, nor with any other woman; and she promised to be domestic; and then the sky was blue, and the sunlight golden, and a heavenly breath descended upon them, and life, youth, and love seemed divine.

Their latest quarrel had been ostensibly about household affairs. The monthly bills had come in, and seemed to Basil enormous. And the nurse had been discovered feeding Ronald Grange at an undue hour. All Teresa's faults as a housewife were once more gone over, and Basil, with his usual vigour, had asserted that she cared nothing for the household, for the baby, or for him, but only for her own amusement. The real reason for the explosion was that Teresa, on the previous day, had gone out with her most devoted admirer in his automobile, and lunched with him in the country. He was a