"Why, what great secret do you keep in this room?" she said, speaking at random, in her anger. "One would think you had a hidden treasure here."
The sudden pallor that spread over his face struck her dumb; what had she said to arouse this white rage? The words escaped her memory as they were uttered, but they had given him a blow on the heart. Nelson recovered himself promptly.
"Well," he said, with less of bitterness in his voice, "you have chosen to seek me without invitation and without motive, so far as I can understand. If you have any business, let me know it?"
"Cannot a woman visit her husband without special business?" retorted the wife.
"Her husband?" he repeated, in a low, sneering voice.
She burst into tears.
"Nelson, this is cruel."
"Cruel; I thought you did not understand the term!"
She could control her passion no longer, but stamped angrily on the marble floor with her foot.
"Nelson Thrasher, this is too much, after persecuting me with your attentions, begging me upon your knees to become your wife. I am insulted in my own house, sneered at almost before my own servants, neglected, trampled on——"