Lord Jim did not like this banter, and said so in a few forcible words. Then he moved to the door, casting a disgusted look at a pile of bills on Leah's side of the table.
"What about this truck?"
"Oh, we'll pay them out of your insurance," laughed Lady Jim.
"Not much. I'm not going to disappear and give up everything for the benefit of a lot of measly tradesmen."
"I wish you wouldn't dangle grapes out of my reach," said his wife, pettishly; "you know it's not to be done."
Jim plunged forward, and, gathering up the mass of papers, threw them into the fire. "Pay them in this way, then," said he, enraged.
"I wish I could," sighed Leah, wearily, and looked at herself in the mirror. "Do stop worrying me, Jim. I'm getting to look quite old. Are you going out?"
"Yes. We've wasted an hour in talking about nothing. We're on the rocks, I tell you."
"And so," said Lady Jim, calmly, "you end where you began."
Jim looked up to heaven. "And this is a wife!" said he, plaintively.