"Go on, Hartley Emerson! Speak of all that is in your mind. You have now an opportunity that may never come again."
There was a dead level in her voice that a little puzzled her husband.
"It is for you to speak," he answered. "I have put my interrogatories."
Unhappily, there was a shade of imperiousness in his voice.
"I never answer insulting interrogatories; not even from the man who calls himself my husband," replied Irene, haughtily.
"It may be best for you to answer," said Hartley. There was just the shadow of menace in his tones.
"Best!" The lip of Irene curled slightly. "On whose account, pray?"
"Best for each of us. Whatever affects one injuriously must affect both."
"Humph! So we are equals!" Irene tossed her head impatiently, and laughed a short, mocking laugh.
"Nothing of that, if you please!" was the husband's impatient retort. The sudden change in his wife's manner threw him off his guard.