"Thank you, dear Joe," said Sophy softly.
The Judge replied mechanically: "Not at all." He was fingering the paper-weight again. He looked uncomfortable ... with a new sort of discomfort. He cleared his throat. Regarding Sophy with doubt in his worried eyes, he said:
"Er ... Sophy ... er ... in case ... what about the question of alimony?"
Like lightning, she replied as he had feared she would:
"Not a penny ... not a cent of alimony, Joe!"
"But in such a case, the Court...."
"I wouldn't accept it."
"Perhaps, dear...." began Charlotte, in a "sense-of-duty" tone. Though she considered her sister unwise, yet she sympathised ardently with this unwisdom.
"No—never!" Sophy said again.
The Judge looked more and more uncomfortable. The snowstorm in the paper-weight became a blizzard. At last he jumped into the midst of things, with all the jerky suddenness of a man who has at last determined to break through the ice-skim on his morning tub.