"What an awful fool you have made of yourself!" is the tender salutation, since Mr. Wilmarth is not present. "What you ever could see in that man passes my comprehension! He may do for business, but if I understand rightly, Floyd is not over-fond of him. I suppose that was why you married on the sly?"
"I married to please myself," says Marcia, bridling, "and I dare say you did the same. I have a husband who is kind and generous and noble, who loves me and whom I love, and if fate has in some ways treated him unkindly, he shall learn that there is one woman in the world brave enough to make it up to him."
She repeats this almost like a lesson learned by rote.
"Bosh," returns Laura, with contemptuous superiority. "I dare say you thought it would be the last chance!"
"Oh, I have heard of women marrying even at forty," retorts Marcia, with a shrill little laugh.
"And to do it in that way! Whatever possessed you to make such an idiot of yourself. To bring that man in the family!"
"You forget he is my husband, Mrs. Delancy," and Marcia braves her resolutely.
At this moment the door opens and the obnoxious person enters, having heard his wife's last sentence. He walks straight up to Laura, with determination in every line of his countenance.
"Ah, Mrs. Delancy," he says, and then adds in a meaning tone, with a kind of bitter suavity, "I suppose we do not need to be introduced. Although I never was much of a visitor in my late partner's household, I have known you all, and I suppose am entitled to a little friendly recognition for Marcia's sake. We have taken our step in a most unorthodox manner, but it suited ourselves, our only apology."
"Extremely unorthodox," says Laura, in a biting tone.