Chapter Six.
A Loving Couple.
“Married for love! Hach! fool that I’ve been!”
The man who muttered these words was seated with elbows resting upon a table, and hands thrust distractedly through his hair.
“Fool that I’ve been, and for a similar reason!” The rejoinder, in a female voice, came from an inner apartment. At the same instant the door, already ajar, was spitefully pushed open, disclosing the speaker to view: a woman of splendid form and features, not the less so that both were quivering with indignation.
The man started, and looked up with an air of embarrassment. “You heard me, Frances?” he said, in a tone half-surly, half-ashamed.
“I heard you, Richard,” answered the woman, sweeping majestically into the room. “A pretty speech for a man scarce twelve months married—for you! Villain!”
“That name is welcome!” doggedly retorted the man. “It’s enough to make one a villain?”
“What’s enough, sir?”
“To think that but for you I might have had my thousands a year, with a titled lady for my wife!”