"And I should wish you to go with me, when we do go to Matching."
"Oh, Plantagenet," said the wife, "what a Darby and Joan kind of thing you like to have it!"
"Yes, I do. The Darby and Joan kind of thing is what I like."
"Only Darby is to be in an office all day, and in Parliament all night,—and Joan is to stay at home."
"Would you wish me not to be in an office, and not to be in Parliament? But don't let us misunderstand each other. You are doing the best you can to further what you think to be my interests."
"I am," said the Duchess.
"I love you the better for it, day by day." This so surprised her, that as she took him by the arm, her eyes were filled with tears. "I know that you are working for me quite as hard as I work myself, and that you are doing so with the pure ambition of seeing your husband a great man."
"And myself a great man's wife."
"It is the same thing. But I would not have you overdo your work. I would not have you make yourself conspicuous by anything like display. There are ill-natured people who will say things that you do not expect, and to which I should be more sensitive than I ought to be. Spare me such pain as this, if you can." He still held her hand as he spoke, and she answered him only by nodding her head. "I will go down with you to Gatherum on Friday." Then he left her.