"I suppose you never consider his happiness at all!"
Mr. Fairbanks grew redder. He fairly blinked. He stood looking at her indignantly for a moment of silence. Emily wondered if he now would break forth and give Martha a thoroughly good "dressing down."
But when he began speaking, his words were soft and suave.
"Well, I'm more or less responsible for HER happiness, Martha. I'm not for his. I pay him. He's necessary to her—she's very affectionate, really. I pay him to contribute to her happiness, just as I pay for my mother's nurses." He spoke slowly. Obviously he wanted to consider himself a fair man, always. "And I can't say," he went on, carefully, "that he always plays the game. Sometimes I think she would be happier without him. He doesn't—— Sometimes, that is, I wonder if he's worth——" He hesitated.
So Martha completed his sentence for him.
"What you pay him?" she asked, and the finish of her insolence made even Emily, harassed as she was, wonder where she had ever learned the tone. For, looking straight at him, she got up and deliberately started to leave the room. Mr. Fairbanks, it seemed, was not afraid of girls, for he put out his arm and took hold of hers, intending to detain her. She broke away angrily as he spoke her name gently, and, standing in the door into the hall, he watched her sail defiantly up the stairs.
He turned around; he looked from Emily to Bob. They, watching him sharply, saw consternation slowly gain control of his face.
"Oh!" he murmured. "He hasn't—you don't think——"
He could no longer look at Emily. He addressed his mumblings to Bob. "I didn't realize—— Eve said something, but I didn't—think it amounted to anything."
"Oh, what can we do now?" Emily moaned.