right to destroy other people, if they choose to go to destruction
themselves. Ha, lord! Oh, dear! I only hope none of my girls will
ever marry--I hope they'll none of 'em ever be the slave their poor
mother is: they shan't, if I can help it. What do you say?

"NOTHING?

"Well, I don't wonder at that, Mr. Caudle? you ought to be ashamed to
speak; I don't wonder that you can't open your mouth. I'm only
astonished that at such hours you have the confidence to knock at
your own door. Though I'm your wife, I must say it, I do sometimes
wonder at your impudence. What do you say?

"NOTHING?

"Ha! you are an aggravating creature, Caudle; lying there like the
mummy of a man, and never as much as opening your lips to one. Just
as if your own wife wasn't worth answering! It isn't so when you're
out, I'm sure. Oh no! then you can talk fast enough; here, there's
no getting a word from you. But you treat your wife as no other man
does--and you know it.

"Out--out every night! What?

"YOU HAVEN'T BEEN OUT THIS WEEK BEFORE?

"That's nothing at all to do with it. You might just as well be out
all the week as once--just! And I should like to know what could
keep you out till these hours?