What do you think of him?"

"Madame," he replied shortly, "since you ask, I think your husband is
little short of an idiot!"

Ruth felt herself flush as she heard.

The woman looked at him in consternation.

"What is the matter?" she asked.

"Matter? Mayonnaise is the matter. If a man with a weak stomach like his
cannot resist gorging himself with things he has been strictly prohibited
from touching, he had better proclaim himself irresponsible and be done.
It is nonsense to call me in when he persists in cutting up such antics.
Good-afternoon."

And abruptly raising his hat, he sprang in beside Ruth, taking the reins
from her without a word.

She felt very meek and small beside the evidently exasperated physician.
He seemed to forget her presence entirely, and she had too much tact to
break the silence of an angry man. In nine cases out of ten, the explosion
is bound to take place; but woe to him who lights the powder!

They were now driving northeast toward the quarter known as North Beach.
The sweet, fresh breeze in the western heights toward Golden Gate is here
charged with odors redolent of anything but the "shores of Araby the
blest."