Page:Neith Boyce--The bond.djvu/281

Rh "But that's just it. If she spent more, I would spend less. She might spend at least half of it. If she were with me, I should not be so extravagant. But she always says she has no clothes to go to the places I go. Why doesn't she get the clothes? You see, she is what you call a frump."

"You horrid man! Why don't you try getting less for yourself and giving her the extra money?"

"She would only spend it on the house or the children. Besides it is not all a question of money. Your clothes—" he gave a critical glance at her white dress—"do not cost so very much. Yet you are always perfectly well dressed. That's what I mean by her being a frump. It's the way she puts on her clothes, and then of course she would not take care to keep her figure. It's a great mistake for a woman to lose her beauty. Nina was more beautiful than you—and now you are far more beautiful. You have gained greatly from your marriage. You have not made a slave of yourself, eh?"

"No. But then I have not five children and a husband like you." "Like me? Why do you dislike me so much? I am like all other husbands, only better-tempered and handsomer."

"Conceited creature! What good does it do a man to be handsome like a doll? The ugly ones are much more interesting."