"Would you have me give up my principles?" she questioned, scornfully.
Once again, Mr. Delancy snorted contemptuously.
"You haven't got any principles," he declared, baldly. "No woman has."
At this brutal statement on the part of her husband, Mrs. Delancy stiffened, and an exclamation of shocked amazement burst from her. Cicily smiled cynically, as she addressed her aunt:
"Well, Aunt Emma," she said amusedly, "you see now what your attitude has led to. You began with no backbone. So, now, you have no principles. Oh, you nice, sweet-faced, gray-headed, deceiving old-lady reprobate, you!"
But Mrs. Delancy refused to see any element of humor in the situation. Indeed, she was on the verge of tears over the wantonly injurious statement made by the husband whom she had cherished for a lifetime.
"James, how could you!" she cried out, in a voice broken by emotion. "To say such things to your wife—oh!"
Too late, the irascible husband realized that he had committed a serious fault, had in fact been guilty of a gross injustice, which was hardly less than an insult, to the woman whom he thoroughly respected.
"Emma—" he began, appealingly.
But Mrs. Delancy had changed in an instant from tearful reproach to righteous indignation.