“And you answered that not having any consideration for my own, it was not likely I would give much thought to the wives and families of the men.”
“I didn’t say so, but I thought it.”
“Admirable self-restraint! Now look here, Sarah, you’re playing with fire and haven’t the sense to know it. Mrs. Hope is a meddling, hysterical fool, and——”
“You wouldn’t dare say that to your employer.”
“Now that remark shows that a woman of your calibre can live for years with a man and not begin to understand him. The trouble is that I shall say just that very thing to my employer, as you delight to call him, the moment his wife puts her finger in the pie. Then what follows?”
“You will lose your situation.”
“Exactly. Or, to put it more truthfully, I resign—I walk out into the street.”
“You surely would do nothing so foolish.”
“That follows instantly when I am compelled to give Mr. Hope my opinion regarding his domestic relations. Then what will become of your income? Will Mrs. Hope contribute, do you think? Do you aspire to a place on her charity list? Whatever your opinion has been of me, privately held or publicly expressed, you must admit that I have at least provided money enough to keep the house going, and you have surely the sense to appreciate that. You never could see an inch ahead of your nose, or realize that effect follows cause as inevitably as fate. How a woman can describe a man as obstinate and domineering, impatient of all control, and then deliberately wag her tongue to bring about the very interference that she must know, if she believes what she has said, he will not stand, passes my comprehension. The result of your gossip to-day may be that I shall be looking for another situation to-morrow.”
Mrs. Sartwell had been weeping during the latter part of this harangue.