The great dome rich with gems, and deep with peace, bent over her, and by and by her sobs ceased.
“You are trying, I know,” I reiterated, “but you don’t understand—you can’t, for you have only a woman’s nature.”
“A woman’s, and a man’s, and a child’s, to be a perfect wife and mother; that is, you must be able to comprehend them all. Your husband came home cross to-night.”
“Yes, irritable toward us all, and I so hoped to have everything pleasant this evening.”
“He, too, had his hopes to-day, and they were flung to the ground, and broken before his eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“The special agent of a company that he has for a year been working to get, has been in town.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Yesterday this agent led him to suppose he was to be the favored one. All to-day he has been working toward that end, and near night he heard that this man had gone, without even saying good-by. You remember that Mr. Purblind left home in a hurry this morning, with scarcely a bite of breakfast; he took very little luncheon, and——”