"There's no telling when she may bob up and put a spoke in your wheel," he said, taking off his necktie.
"You see to it that you put on a clean collar in the morning," said Pearl Higgins from the bed. "The one you've got on's filthy dirty."
"I wish you could see it in a little different light Pearl," said her spouse. "It ain't as if Hat Tyler was the fiend incarnate. But she'll naturally hanker to get back at you; and with me away and all——"
"I can take care of myself, thank you," said Pearl.
"Still and all, I don't like to leave you with things this way."
"A precious lot you care how you leave things—going off at your age and getting into this awful war when there ain't a particle of need of it."
"Ain't we had that all out once?"
"And then you stand up there and defend that woman."
"Now, Pearl——"
"Yes, you are! You're defending her, and I shouldn't wonder if you didn't think as much of her as ever you did in your heart of hearts. Oh, if you only knew how it wrings me to think of you and she together!"