"Well," said Collins mockingly, "what are you going to do—keep your bargain, or go to law with us?"
Marsden was thoroughly cowed and beaten. He cleared his throat several times, and even then spoke huskily.
"I must say a word or two to my wife;" and he rose from his chair slowly.... "Of course, when a man's down, everyone can jump on him."
And he went over to Mrs. Marsden, stooped, and whispered.
Collins tapped his nose jocosely, and smiled at Mr. Prentice—seeming to say without words, "What do you think of that, old boy? That's the way Hyde & Collins tackle this sort of troublesome customer."
Little Bence, resuming his dandified air and ostentatiously leaving Mrs. Marsden and her husband to whisper together, picked up his glossy hat, and dusted it with a neatly folded silk handkerchief.
"Jane," said Marsden pleadingly, almost whimperingly, "you come out on top—and I mustn't bear malice. But you have been hard—cruelly hard."
"Dick," said Mrs. Marsden, in a shaky whisper, "don't reproach me."
"But don't you think you have been a little hard."
"No. Or it is you who have made me hard. I wasn't hard—once. And remember this, Dick. Even at the end, I tried to get one word of tenderness from you—to make you say you cared just a little for what happened to me. But no—"