The movement was so sudden that she nearly fell. It was only by catching the back of a convenient chair that she steadied herself. She turned a white, frightened face toward him.
"What's the matter?" she said. "Are you angry with me, Leon?"
"I'm sick of your baby fondness," he answered brutally. "Have done with it."
Jennie fell back into her chair as if shot, and looked at him with reproachful eyes.
"You're angry with me," she said, plaintively; "and I had something to tell you—something very particular."
"Tell it, then," he answered, with a frown as black as night on his handsome face.
The trembling young creature before him remained silent for a few minutes, so utterly confounded was she by the unaccountable change in her husband. His manner had always been the perfection of gentlemanly refinement before. This sudden change to coarse brutality amazed and frightened her. When she spoke her voice was low and broken, and her eyes rested on the carpet.
"I waited to tell you, Leon," she said, with a scarlet blush, "that—that we will have to make some change soon. You'll be obliged to tell Mrs. Bowers that we are married, or take me to some other place. If you don't she'll find out our secret pretty soon. We are compelled to make a change!"
"I have been thinking so myself," he answered, coolly.