"You may go, now. I have told you that once before. If I have to tell you again, you can leave the house altogether."
"Ducie," said Theodora, "I wish you would look after clean linen for the beds and dressing tables."
"What is the matter with the linen, Dora?"
"It is not clean. It looks as if it had been used for two or three weeks."
"Are you sure?"
"Look at it! I can do without many things, Robert, but I cannot do without clean linen."
"Of course not! It is awfully provoking. I tried so hard to have everything spotlessly clean and comfortable, but——" He turned away with an air of angry disappointment.
Dora went to his side and praised again all he had done. She said she would forget all that was spoiled, or broken, or stolen for his sake, and for sweet love's sake, and she emphasized all her tender words with kisses and endearing names.
And she found, as many women find, that the more she renounced her just displeasure and chagrin the harder it was to conciliate her husband's. Whether he enjoyed Dora's efforts to comfort him, or was really of that childish temper which gets more and more injured, as it is more and more consoled, it was at this stage of her married life impossible for Theodora to decide. However, in a little while he condescended to forgive Theodora for the annoyances others had caused him, and said: "It is later than I thought it. We have forgotten tea."
"I do not want any."