"Be easy," Ferguson, admonished, soothingly. "Sure, it's only that we're talking business. It's a matter of wages. The woman folk always approve of them."
Schmidt rolled his eyes heavenward in despair.
"But, when we tell them of the ten per cent. cut! Ach, Himmel!"
Cicily turned a startled glance on her husband.
"A ten per cent. cut!" she exclaimed, involuntarily. "Why, Charles!"
Hamilton was annoyed by this unexpected irruption of the feminine into the most serious of business discussions—the intrusion of the female on the financial. He spoke with distinct note of disapproval in his voice:
"Now, Cicily, you know nothing of this."
Delancy, too, added the weight of his accustomed authority.
"Don't bother with things that do not concern you, Cicily." There was a patronizing quality in the admonition that irritated the wife.
Ferguson spoke to the same effect, but with a radically different motive underlying his words: