“Oh, yes. Why, it was in the newspapers!”
“How was it made up between the parties?”
“It isn't made up at all, I believe; There's been some talk of a duel.”
“A sad affair,” said I. “How could Mrs. Dewey have been so thoughtless?”
“She isn't prudent, by any means,” answered this intimate friend. “I often look at the way she conducts herself at public places, and wonder at her folly.”
“Folly, indeed, if her conduct strikes at the root of domestic happiness.”
The lady shook her head in a quiet, meaning way.
I waited for her to put her thoughts into words, which she did in a few moments after this fashion:
“There's not much domestic happiness to spoil, Doctor, so far as I can see. I don't think she cares a farthing for her husband; and he seems to have his mind so full of grand business schemes as to have no place left for the image of his wife. At least, so I read him.”
“How has this matter affected their relation one to the other?”