"Oh, yes, Mr. Smith, but you did say it," I replied, quite
astonished at this unexpected denial.

"Excuse me for saying that you are in error," he returned, drawing
himself up. "I never say Miss for Mrs."

"Why, Mr. Smith! You always say it. I have noticed it a hundred
times. I believe I can hear pretty correctly."

"In this instance you certainly have not."

Mr. Smith was growing warm, and I felt the blood rushing to my face.
A rather tart reply was on my lips, but I bit them hard and
succeeded in keeping them closed.

A deep silence followed. In a little while Mr. Smith took up a
newspaper and commenced reading, and I found some relief for a heavy
pressure that was upon my bosom, in the employment of hem-stitching
a fine pocket-handkerchief.

And this was the return I had met for a kind attempt to correct a
mistake of my husband's, that made him liable to ridicule on the
charge of vulgarity! And to deny, too, that he said "_Miss_," when I
had been worried about it for more than a year! It was too bad!

After this Mr. Smith was very particular in saying, when he spoke of
a married woman to me, _Misses_. The emphasis on the second syllable
was much too strongly marked to be pleasant on my ears. I was
terribly afraid he would say "_Mistress_," thus going off into the