"I cannot afford it. I am on the high-road to beggary."
"You're uncommon fond of talking nonsense, Mr. Cragg."
"I am speaking sober truth. At this rate I shall soon be bankrupt."
Mrs. Cragg declined to believe what he said. She took up the bill and glanced it through.
"Those people are cheats. I don't believe it ought to be a quarter as much."
"You mean that you have not had the things?"
"I had some, of course. Not all that list."
"Find something in the bill that you have not had, and I will make complaint."
"Really, Mr. Cragg, I didn't marry you to be kept in as close as this, and lectured as if I was a school-girl. And I don't mean to bear it. You've been worse than ever since Pattie came—and that's the truth."
"I shall have to be worse," Cragg answered coldly. "I cannot afford this sort of thing, and that's the long and short of the matter. If you run into debt, you must manage for yourself. But it's no use speaking to you. You don't choose to understand." And he left the room as Pattie came in.