"But you forget, I'm not alone. I must consult my wife."
"That is what I don't wish you to do."
"Don't? You mean, go away with you without—?"
"I mean, without Mrs. Armine."
"Leave my wife?"
"Leave Ruby? Desert her after all she's done for me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Isaacson said nothing.
Nigel looked at Isaacson in silence for what seemed to Isaacson a long time—minutes. Then his face slowly flushed, was suffused with blood up to his forehead. It seemed to swell, as if there was a pressure from within outwards. Then the blood retreated, leaving behind it a sort of dark pallor, and the eyes looked sunken in their sockets.