“Don’t you?” She laughed briefly, and shook her head as though marvelling at the plight in which she found herself, wondering how she had come to it. “No, I suppose you were born and brought up to such weather. I suppose that’s why you didn’t tell me about it before I came here. You probably didn’t realize what this deathly suffocating air might do to the nerves of a human being who’s always lived near the sea. And for your mother to make me stand hours in that oven, trying to talk to all those awful people——”
“Lena!” Dan was as profoundly astonished as he was distressed. “Why, those are the best people in town; they’re our old family friends, and I don’t know where in the world you’d expect to find better. What fault could you find with ’em, dear? They were all so cordial and pleasant, and so anxious to be friends with you, I thought you’d enjoy——”
“Oh, yes!” she cried. “ ‘Enjoy!’ Oh, yes!”
“What’s the matter with ’em? Weren’t their clothes——”
“Their clothes!” she echoed desperately. “What do I care about their clothes!”
“Then what——”
“Oh, don’t!” she moaned. “Don’t ask me what’s wrong with such people!”
“But I do ask you, Lena.”
“Don’t! My life wouldn’t be long enough to tell you.”
“Well, I declare!” the dismayed young husband exclaimed, and sat down beside her on the bed.