"A monster!" she repeated, with emphasis. "Mamma says so, and she thinks I ought to requite you with scorn. That is why I came."
"Ah, indeed, is that why?" said Albert, relieving her of her travelling-bag. She allowed this attention, but maintained her dignified attitude.
"You have deserted me,--me, your lawful wedded wife,--deserted me shamefully, and upon our wedding-tour!"
"Pardon me, my child, you deserted me," Gersdorf protested. "You drove off with the picnic-party----"
"For a few hours! And when I returned you were gone,--gone to the wilderness,--for this Oberstein is no less,--and now here you sit in this detestable tobacco-smoke, smoking and laughing and joking. Don't deny it, Albert, you were laughing. I heard your voice plainly from outside."
"I certainly was laughing, but that is no crime."
"When your wife was away!" Molly exclaimed, angrily,--"when your deeply-injured wife was at that very moment bewailing the fate that has fettered her to a heartless husband! Oh, how could you!"
She sobbed aloud, and in her despair threw herself upon the sofa; bouncing up again instantly, however, in dismay at its extreme hardness.
"Molly," her husband said, seriously, as he approached her, "you knew why I wished to avoid those people, and I thought my wife would have stood by me. I was very sorry to find myself mistaken."
The reproof went home; Molly cast down her eyes and replied, meekly "I care nothing for all those stupid people; but mamma thought I ought not to allow myself to be tyrannized over."