nothing for me. Note, too, how at the close, even when he has shown that
by the reports that have reached him he is justified in suspecting me, he
as much as says that he will forgive me."

"Yes--perhaps--when once he has had his sweet fill of seeing me kicking at
the end of a rope! Truly I marvel, Daisy, how you can be so blind, after
all the misery and suffering this ruffian has caused you."

"He is my husband, Douw," she said, simply, as if that settled everything.

"Yes, he is your husband--a noble and loving husband, in truth! He first
makes your life wretched at home--you know you _were_ wretched, Daisy!
Then he deserts you, despoiling your house before your very eyes,
humiliating you in the hearing of your servants, and throwing the poverty
of your parents in your face as he goes! He stops away two years--having
you watched meanwhile, it seems--yet never vouchsafing you so much as a
word of message! Then at last, when these coward Tories have bought help
enough in Germany and in the Indian camps to embolden them to come down
and look their neighbors in the face, he is pleased to write you this
letter, abounding in coarse insults in every sentence. He tells you of his
coming as he might notify a tavern wench. He hectors and orders you as if
you were his slave. He pleasantly promises the ignominious death of your
chief friends. And all this you take kindly--sifting his brutal words in
search for even the tiniest grain of manliness. My faith, I am astonished
at you! I credited you with more spirit."

She was not angered at this outburst, which had in it more harsh phrases
than she had heard in all her life from me before, but, after a little
pause, said to me quite calmly: