Bert had not meant what he said to her; she had not meant what she
said to him, and they both knew it. But an ugly silence lasted
between them for several days. They spoke to each other civilly,
before other people; they dressed and went about with an outward
semblance of pleasantness, and at home they spoke to the servants
and the children.




Chapter Twenty-nine


No formal reconciliation ended this time of discomfort. Guests
came to the house, and Bert addressed his wife with some faint
spontaneity, and Nancy eagerly answered him. They never alluded to
the quarrel; it might have been better if they had argued and
cried and laughed away the pain, in the old way.

But they needed each other less now, and life was too full to be
checked by a few moments of misunderstanding. Nancy learned to
keep absolutely silent when Bert was launched upon one of his
favourite tirades against her extravagance; perhaps the most
maddening attitude she could have assumed. She would listen
politely, her eyes wandering, her thoughts quite as obviously
astray.

"But a lot you care!" Bert would finish angrily, "You go on and
on, it's charge and charge and charge--SOMEBODY'LL pay for it all!
You've got to do as the other women do, no matter how crazy it is!