to know what your boys will say of you when they grow up! And all about a
paltry button off one of your wristbands! A decent man would n't have
mentioned it. Why don't I hold my tongue? Because I won't hold my tongue.
I'm to have my peace of mind destroyed--I 'm to be worried into my grave
for a miserable shirt button, and I'm to hold my tongue! Oh! but that's
just like you men!

9. But I know what I'll do for the future. Every button you have may drop
off, and I won't so much as put a thread to 'em. And I should like to know
what you'll do then! Oh, you must get somebody else to sew 'em, must you?
That's a pretty threat for a husband to hold out to his wife! And to such
a wife as I've been, too: such a slave to your buttons, as I may say.
Somebody else to sew 'em'! No, Caudle, no; not while I'm alive! When I'm
dead--and, with what I have to bear, there's no knowing how soon that may
be--when I 'm dead, I say--oh! what a brute you must be to snore so!

10. You're not snoring? Ha! that's what you always say; but that's nothing
to do with it. You must get somebody else to sew 'em, must you? Ha! I
should n't wonder. Oh, no! I should be surprised at nothing now! Nothing
at all! It's what people have always told me it would come to; and now the
buttons have opened my eyes! But the whole world shall know of your
cruelty, Mr. Caudle. After the wife I've been to you. Caudle, you've a
heart like a hearthstone, you have!


DEFINITIONS.--5. Ag'gra-vat-ing, provoking, irritating. 6. Sink'ing,
failing in strength. 7. Vin-dic'tive, revengeful. 8. Pal'try, mean,
contemptible.