“Oh, come, now, Rene, you know better than that; you know he never believed in divorces, and I’ll bet my head he is not married.”
“Well, I couldn’t go back there if I wanted to.”
“Try it.”
“You must want to get rid of me. What is the matter with you, Max?”
“Oh, nothing, only to tell you the truth, I know a little fairy who is crazy for me to make love to her, and she is one of the neatest little dancers in all the world.”
“Max,” cried Irene, angrily, “you are a perfect devil, and I wish I had never seen you. I wish I had never left Scott.”
A fresh burst of tears and a violent fit of coughing followed this outburst of anger, and Irene sank back exhausted on her pillow.
“I wish you never had left him,” Max said, wiping his bloodshot eyes, as he arose and started to leave the 239 room. “I am going to bed; you can spend the rest of the night there if you want to.”
“Oh, dear,” sobbed Irene, as she was left again to herself. “Oh, how I wish I had never left home. I think Max is too cross to live. He really abuses me, and after making so many promises, too. I wonder why I am not as much of an angel now as I used to be. Oh dear, oh dear. Perhaps Max will be better natured when he gets over his fit of drunkenness. If I were not so ill I would get even with him yet.”
Again the face of Scott Wilmer came before her, and the searching eyes seemed to look into hers with a gaze that burned down into her very soul.