He paused, in his heart hoping she would give some sign that the words
meant something to her, and that he might, even yet, catch some
evidence that her love for him was not utterly dead. During the pause
which ensued, she turned her face away from him, and so he did not see
the look almost of terror which it now wore.

Construing her silence into simple acquiescence, and thus angered the
more, he went on in a hard voice: "During the past two years the
change in you, Grace, has been incomprehensible to me. For my wishes
you have not shown the slightest regard, while your home, as you know,
has held no attractions for you--possibly because I am in it. You have
persisted in going out alone to the opera, to parties and social
attractions of a like nature, until you have almost become talked
about." His voice grew more bitter as he continued to recall the past.
"Had you been a plain woman you would likely have found some
attractions at your home; but the love of adulation and the greed of
excitement and false flattery seem now to be so necessary to you that
your true womanliness has been killed."

He was now pacing the floor in deep agitation.

A transformation had crept over his wife's face. Her cheeks were no
longer pale, but flushed with anger, while her head was thrown back
defiantly and her hands tightly clenched.

"And has my lord finished the list of his wife's accomplishments?" she
asked, smothering her anger by a strong effort, and speaking as though
in jest.

Quietly walking over to where she was sitting, he said, in a tense