Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/195

Rh tone of pseudo-resignation. "I thought I wouldn't send for you; I thought I'd just see—how long it would please you to leave me alone."

"I have not been very long, have I, Arthur? I have not been an hour, I'm sure."

"Oh, of course, an hour is nothing to you, so pleasantly employed; but to me—"

"It has not been pleasantly employed," interrupted I. "I have been nursing our poor little baby, who is very far from well, and I could not leave him till I got him to sleep."

"Oh to be sure, you're overflowing with kindness and pity for everything but me."

"And why should I pity you? what is the matter with you?"

"Well! that passes everything! After all the wear and tear that I've had, when I come home sick and weary, longing for comfort, and expecting to find attention and kindness, at least, from my wife,—she calmly asks what is the matter with me!"