"No; they will be fruitful in discussion. Don't you want me to talk to you?"
"Certainly."
"You're angry, aren't you?"
"I hope not."
"Yes, you are! Look how good-tempered I am." Her eyes were alight with battle, her lips only parted for speech, and her hands were restless. Now she clasped them and swayed back and forward as she spoke. "I should like to have four—no, five—hundred a year, and do good things with the rest of your income. Perhaps to-morrow I would rather have those pearls you want to give me, but I don't think so. Pearls do not become me! And to-day I want to build model cottages. We could let this house——"
"Theresa! Let us end this nonsense. We have lived here for generations."
She laughed softly. "I know, but somebody has to begin doing something else. And your workmen have lived in pigsties for generations."
"My workmen——! You don't know what you are talking about! The women of this house have never interfered in outside matters."
She banged her fist on the little tea-table. "Don't talk to me as though I belonged to a harem!"
"Don't be absurd, Theresa." He was very handsome when he was angry.