"Not care for it!" he exclaimed, straightening up suddenly as though struck by some unseen missile. "A nice return I get for all my kindness. Of all the ungrateful—"
She raised her eyes slowly and something in their cold, scornful gaze silenced him. He stood uncertainly opening and shutting the box. Meanwhile a thought came to her—why not take the jewel after all? Why not take all that she could get? Life with this man was becoming fast unbearable, and when at last she should be able to endure it no longer, these trinkets might provide her with the means of escape.
"If you very much desire it," she said coldly, "I will accept your gift."
"I thought you would when you came to think it over. It is a good stone," he said taking up the ring and holding it in the light of the lamp, "and it is worth considerably more than I gave for it. I am not one of your fools who pay the fancy prices of a fashionable jeweller—indeed it is they who come to me for advice, they know I have a good eye for stones, and for a bargain."
"So have the Jews," said Ragna, biting her thread, she was sewing a little garment for Beppino.
"The Jews!" said Valentini, glaring at her, "what do you mean by that? Of course you are so accustomed to the society of princes and grandees that you think yourself above prudence and wise expenditure. You are a fool, which of your princes would have done for you what I have done?"
Ragna bowed her head over her work; she tried to hold herself above the continual taunts and reproaches, and she realized that sometimes, as in this instance, she drew them on herself by her resentment of her husband's little meannesses. He never gave her a present but he expatiated on his shrewdness in buying at a pawn-broker's sale at the proper moment or in taking advantage of some impoverished nobleman's hour of need. The things were, many of them, beautiful and valuable both artistically and intrinsically but the pleasure of their possession was spoiled to Ragna by the unvarying circumstances of their purchase and bestowal.
Egidio's meanness showed itself also in other ways. In September he had accompanied his wife and children to the sea-side for a fortnight and having installed them in the lodgings he had taken, went out for a stroll. It lacked two hours to dinner-time and as little Mimmo was hungry and the baby fretful, Ragna requested the landlady to send up two bowls of bread and milk. Valentini returned in the midst of this frugal repast and with lowering brow inquired the meaning thereof.
"The children were hungry," said Ragna, "and it is too long for them to wait for dinner."
"Too long! They can wait if I can! Besides you should have thought of it before and brought something with you. I tell you, Ragna, your senseless extravagance will be the ruin of me! If you dare ever again to order extras without my permission—" The rest of the threat was lost as he seized the bowls and emptied them out of the window. He then beat a rapid retreat leaving Ragna to quiet as best she could the disappointed and hungry children.