“You have no objection, have you? Purely as a matter of taste, wouldn’t you yourself rather be like Princess Zoe than Madame Melchthal?”
“You want to shut me up where I shall see nobody!”
“But surely going to Klaustra was your own idea? I wrote to Princess Zoe by your request, but if you would rather not pay the visit just at present I am sure you will be able to arrange things with her, and we will go for a cruise first.”
“But you have made this new arrangement without letting me know. You are determined to take me away from Therma and all my friends—do you think I don’t see that? Why didn’t you tell me what you meant to do? Have I ever disobeyed you?”
“I have never requested you to do anything that you have refused.” Armitage evaded the point politely. “But as to my wishes——”
“Oh, you are like all husbands!” Danaë caught a twinkle in her husband’s eye at the suggestion of her vast experience of matrimony, and qualified her words hastily. “Dearest Koralie says they are all alike—grumbling if one gets a single good gown. Now if this”—she flung out her train—“had cost only a few drachmæ, you would have been charmed with it.”
“I can’t imagine that I could have disliked it in that case more than I do now, but I assure you I should have objected to it quite as much.”
“Yes, and I know why. Husbands are all like that—sweetest Koralie says—they are angry and make a fuss at once if anyone even looks at you.”
“Then I think I have shown remarkable self-control this evening,” said Armitage imperturbably.
“I suppose you will tell me next that you don’t want to see me smart and chic and European?” There were tears in Danaë’s voice as she sprang up and displayed her stately figure in all its bravery, but her husband remained irresponsive.