Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/268

258 "I know what you mean, Ralph," said she, nervously playing with her watch-guard and tracing the figure on the rug with the point of her tiny foot, "I know what you mean, but I thought you always liked to be yielded to; and I can't alter now."

"I do like it," replied he, bringing her to him by another tug at her hair. "You mustn't mind my talk Milly. A man must have something to grumble about; and if he can't complain that his wife harries him to death with her perversity and ill-humour, he must complain that she wears him out with her kindness and gentleness."

"But why complain at all, unless, because you are tired and dissatisfied?"

"To excuse my own failings, to be sure. Do you think I'll bear all the burden of my sins on my own shoulders, as long as there's another ready to help me, with none of her own to carry?"

"There is no such one on earth," said she