"By whom, pray?" Mrs. Dunbar's eyes flashed, and her voice was angry in its expression.
"Not by you, certainly."
"If you had inquired of me, there would have been less likelihood of your being led into error," said his wife, with an ill-concealed sneer, that made the very blood boil in the veins of Dunbar.
"Twenty-five thousand dollars!" he muttered to himself a few moments after, as he hastily left the presence of his excited and angry bride. "And is it for such a paltry sum that I have sold myself to this she dev—?"
He checked himself suddenly, in very shame, and repeated with much bitterness—
"Twenty-five thousand dollars! I can make that any year by cutting my cards aright."
It was many hours before the lawyer could think with any calmness upon the new aspect his affairs had suddenly assumed. For his wife, dislike and disgust assumed the place of a forced regard which he had entertained for her, as the representative of a handsome fortune. When he met her, on returning to his elegant home, she was cold, haughty, and reserved, in her manner towards him. Her head was not bowed in bitterness of spirit at the discovery she had made, but was held erect; and she looked at him with a stern, rebuking, imperious gaze, that aroused the worst passions within him. Neither of them referred to the morning's interview.
On the next day, Dunbar's mind was made up to go to old Mr. Harrison, and know the truth. He could bear the suspense no longer. Accordingly, he called to see him the first thing in the morning.
"I learn from my wife," he said, "that you are her guardian."
"I am. I was appointed under her father's will to take charge of her property, and to pay it over to her husband if she ever married."