"I wish he had!" was the retort in Lionel's heart; but he bit his lips to silence, exchanging the words, after a few minutes' pause, for others.
"You would have found Frederick Massingbird a less indulgent husband to you than I have been," he firmly said. "But these remarks are profitless, and will add to the comfort of neither you nor me. Sibylla, I shall send, in your name, to pay this bill of Mrs. Duff's. Will you give it me?"
"I dare say Benoite can find it, if you choose to ask her."
"And, my dear, let me beg of you not to contract these paltry debts. There have been others, as you know. I do not like that Mrs. Verner's name should be thus bandied in the village. What you buy in the village, pay for at once."
"How can I pay while you stint me?"
"Stint you!" repeated Lionel, in amazement. "Stint you!"
"It's nothing but stinting—going on at me as you do!" she sullenly answered. "You would like to deprive me of the horses I have set my mind upon! You know you would!"
"The horses you cannot have, Sibylla," he answered, his tone a decisive one. "I have already said it."
It aroused her anger. "If you don't let me have the horses, and all other things I want, I'll go where I can have them."
What did she mean? Lionel's cheek turned white with the taunt the words might be supposed to imply. He held her two hands in his, pressing them nervously.