"Perhaps so; but they are mine."
"They are not mine, however."
"That is unfortunate!"
"Very. I am demanding nothing extraordinary, I imagine, in insisting that you should cease to flirt with others, and should pay more respect and deference to my wishes than you have done of late. I do not demand affection..."
She again shrugged her shoulders; he perceived it.
"Because," he continued, "I know that is absurd; whatever regard you may once have had for me is gone. I do not even demand gratitude for the kindness I have ever shown you—and you must admit that I have been an indulgent husband—foolishly so. But I have a right to demand from a wife a fulfilment at least of the most ordinary duties of a wife, and a certain amount of respect, or the show of it at any rate. This I have a right to demand, and this I will have."
Mrs. Vyner was not a woman to brook such a dictatorial tone even from the man she loved; and we have seen how Maxwell, when he adopted it, only irritated her to an unusual degree; from Vyner, whom she had been accustomed to sway as she pleased; from Vyner whom she disliked, and somewhat despised, this tone was, therefore, excessively offensive.
Her lip quivered as she replied, "This is a subject upon which we can never agree. I hold myself to be quite competent to judge of my own actions, and until I have done anything to forfeit the good opinion of the world, I shall continue to act as I think proper."
"That is your final determination?"
"It is. I hope it will be unnecessary for me to repeat it."