"No," I said; "I was thinking of Blue Beard. I daresay you remember about him. He was a very uxorious man, you know, and most domestic. Something of a traveller, and when"—
"We won't worry about Blue Beard," she said. "I think I know the outlines of his family history."
"Well then," I said, "why can't you leave me alone? You see I'm busy and yet you insist on staying here and interrupting me. Do you call that being a helpmeet?"
"Well," she said, "I call it joining myself unto you, and that's what we were told to do to one another in the marriage service."
"You're wrong," I said. "I was told to do that unto you, but you were told to submit yourself unto me and to reverence me."
"It's all the same," she said. "All I'm doing is to help you to obey the Prayer-Book."
"Anyhow," I said, "you've sat down and you mean to stay here. Is that what it comes to?"
"It is," she said. "You're in tremendous guessing form to-day."
"All I know," I said gloomily, "is that if my return for Income Tax contains many mistakes it'll be your fault, not mine; and I shall take care so to inform the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I shall put down in the Exemptions and Abatements, 'Interrupted by wife. Abatement claimed, £100.' The Chancellor will understand. He's a married man himself."
"So you're doing your Income Tax," she said dreamily. "I've often wondered how that was done. Do you like it?"