"I would not have believed it—even of you!" he said pointedly. "If somebody else had told me, I should have said it was impossible."
"Well, then, it isn't impossible; and you're wiser to-night than you were this morning!" retorted his wife.
Cragg stood up.
"Now I understand!" he said. "I understand—and I do not wonder—that Pattie should wish to live no longer under my roof. I have never been more ashamed—for myself—and for you!"
Then he left the room.
[CHAPTER XIV]
Little Dot—
A Catastrophe
THE household atmosphere was thick and uncomfortable during many days. Pattie heard nothing of that late Sunday evening talk, for Cragg would not complain to her of his wife, and Mrs. Cragg felt that she would gain little by repeating what had passed; but there was a general sense of strain. Cragg had become grave and silent; Mrs. Cragg was much out of temper; and Pattie found skill needed to steer straight. But for little Dot's devotion to herself, she would have felt the condition of things unbearable.
Nearly a week later Cragg, meeting her on the stairs, stopped to say: