"Margaret," he said, "I've never quarrelled with any one in my life, but," he added, a little icy gleam in his eyes that did chill her for the moment, "I've always had my own way!"
"Which has, of course, been dreadfully bad for you. It's well you've married a wife that is going to be very firm with you!"
Daniel bit his lip to keep from laughing. Not for an instant did he think of yielding. The difficulty of the situation served only to aggravate his obstinacy. There was more than one way of getting a thing, and Daniel was not at all above resorting to cunning. Half the successes of his career had been the result of his cunning. He did not call it that; he named it subtlety, far-sightedness.
"I want to ask you something, Margaret; sit down."
She sighed and dropped again into the chair opposite him.
"You bought your new dress—frock—gown, this morning?"
She shook her head, too weary and hungry to speak.
"You didn't?"
"I told you I didn't intend to get anything."
"But we all told you to! I wish you to!"