However, she did not say anything about it and the man was in doubt as to whether her curiosity had been aroused or not.
The next day when he came home to dinner she met him at the door with flashing eyes and an ominous look about her jaw.
“You miserable, deceitful wretch!” she cried. “After living all these years with you to find that you have been basely deceiving me and leading a double life, and bringing shame and sorrow upon your innocent family! I always thought you were a villain and a reprobate, and now I have positive proof of the fact.”
“Wh—wha—what do you mean, Maria?” he gasped. “I haven’t been doing anything.”
“Of course you are ready to add lying to your catalogue of vices. Since you pretend not to understand me—look at this.”
She held up to his gaze a complete paper of the issue of the day before.
“You thought to hide your actions from me by cutting out part of the paper, but I was too sharp for you.”
“Why that was just a little joke, Maria. I didn’t think you would take it seriously. I—”
“Do you call that a joke, you shameless wretch?” she cried, spreading the paper before him.
The man looked and read in dismay. In cutting out the catarrh advertisement he had never thought to see what was on the other side of it, and this was the item that appeared, to one reading the other side of the page, to have been clipped: