As her husband continued silent, she presently arose, and with a
peculiar smile playing about her mouth, walked calmly over to him, and
laying her hand on the back of his chair, said, in a voice in which
the same subtle tone was noticeable: "My lord, you see I have obeyed,
and have not gone out without coming here, as commanded by you, to
learn your pleasure regarding my coming in and going out."

Harold Townsley arose hastily, and said sternly and angrily, as he
faced her: "Was it necessary, Grace, to sing that song in such a
manner? Did you wish me to understand through it the state of your
present feelings toward me? I dislike to harbor the thought that you
chose the song, and began to sing it in the manner you did, the moment
you heard me coming."

Had his tone been less angry and stern, her reply might not have been
so bitterly cutting.

"Your questions, Harold, I must say, are pointed ones," she answered,
as, seating herself, she broke into a seemingly disingenuous smile,
and shook her head protestingly; "and it seems to me that they are
utterly uncalled for, too. Our life for the past two years should have
demonstrated that fact. However, to answer your questions: Your
intuitions were correct; I did choose that song purposely for you, and
only began to sing it when I heard you coming. As to the question of
my sentiments toward you: When you remember that it is scarcely twenty
minutes since you, once more, bitterly found fault with me, and that,
too, almost before the servants, because I chose to go out again
to-night, and angrily informed me that you would like to see me here
before I left the house--surely you did not expect to find me trilling
a love-song for you in heart-broken accents! Still, I must say that I