Her husband ignored the insult.
“What stuff shall I get?” he said.
“Any damned stuff,” said his wife. “D’you want me to dry-nurse you? I shouldn’t say you want it for a domino, or they’ll think you’re out of your mind. Say you want it for a shroud—they’ll believe that. . . . Just as a matter of interest, can you look cheerful? Or have you lost the knack?”
“I’ve lost the knack,” said Peregrine. “Our marriage has been a failure, and——”
“Whose fault is that?”
Peregrine shrugged his shoulders and rose to his feet.
“Mine, I suppose,” he said, with a ghost of a laugh.
“Oh, you darling,” said his wife.
Peregrine shuddered.
“I wish you wouldn’t talk like that, Marion.”