me? Don't you see the eternal drag you're putting on my wheel? I never
drink, I never play cards, I don't do what any other fellow under the
sun would expect to do; I give you all I can--every penny's gone in
this awful domesticity. Domesticity? Slavery, I call it! What more can
I do? What more do you expect? You ask for a perambulator as if it
were a sixpenny-ha'penny toy! What would a perambulator cost?"

She retained control enough to reply:

"I--I have a catalogue. The one I've marked--I'd thought of--is--is
three pounds ten."

Osborn threw away restraint.

"Three pounds ten!" he cried. "Within ten bob of a week's salary! Do
you realise what you're asking? My God, women have a cheek. You bleed
a man and bleed him until--until he don't know where to turn. It's
ask, ask, ask--"

Then Marie also flung off restraint and gave all her pent-up nerves
play. They faced each other like furies, he red and grim, she shaken
and shrill.

"Ask, ask, ask! And what has marriage ever given me? Look at me! I was
happy till I married you! I never knew what it was to be so poor
and--and grudged till I'd married you! I didn't know what marriage
was. I didn't know I'd be hungry and worried--yes, hungry!--and made
ashamed to ask for every penny that I couldn't get without asking. Why
can't I get it? Why, because you took me away from my job and married
me! I cook for you, and sew and sweep and dust for you, and you take