“He’s—he’s—there’s a little matter of business that keeps my partner rather late,” said Mr. Craggs, looking uneasily about him.
“Oh—h! Business. Don’t tell me!” said Mrs. Snitchey.
“We know what business means,” said Mrs. Craggs.
But their not knowing what it meant, was perhaps the reason why Mrs. Snitchey’s Bird of Paradise feather quivered so portentously, and all the pendant bits on Mrs. Craggs’s ear-rings shook like little bells.
“I wonder you could come away, Mr. Craggs,” said his wife.
“Mr. Craggs is fortunate, I’m sure!” said Mrs. Snitchey.
“That office so engrosses ’em,” said Mrs. Craggs.
“A person with an office has no business to be married at all,” said Mrs. Snitchey.
Then Mrs. Snitchey said, within herself, that that look of hers had pierced to Craggs’s soul, and he knew it: and Mrs. Craggs observed, to Craggs, that ‘his Snitcheys’ were deceiving him behind his back, and he would find it out when it was too late.
Still, Mr. Craggs, without much heeding these remarks, looked uneasily about him until his eye rested on Grace, to whom he immediately presented himself.