"Well, it wouldn't be very civil of me, would it, when you are my guest
at my own table, to accuse you of trying to skin my wife and me of her
half of Berkeley Hill? I hope I am a man of too much tact to commit a
breach of hospitality and etiquette like that! But this I will say----"
Margaret, however, seeing her husband to-day with Walter's eyes, was so
swept with shame that she could not endure it. "Daniel!" she
interposed, fearing that Walter, with Southern heat, would rise and
slay her husband, "do let me enjoy Walter for one day without bothering
about business, won't you? Wait until to-night to talk things out."
"As I'm obliged to get back to the office by two o'clock, I suppose I
shall have to wait until this evening. But I've already waited over a
year!" said Daniel, glancing at Walter to note the embarrassment he
expected his brother-in-law to feel at this thrust.
But Walter was, by this time, beyond feeling anything but wonder and
amusement at Leitzel's conversation, with, also, a sense of
consternation at his fresh realization of poor Margaret's fate in being
saddled to a "mate" like this, who, apparently, let her have none of
the compensations which his huge wealth might have afforded her.
"But you know," he trivially replied to Daniel's thrust, "'all things
come to him who waits.' You waited pretty long for a wife, didn't you,
Mr. Leitzel, and now you've _got_ one--very much so!--a hotheaded
little Southerner, with ideals of chivalry and honour and honesty which
I fear must make your hair stand up sometimes, you bloated capitalist!
Yes, in these days, when a man marries, he finds himself very _much_
married, eh, Leitzel?" he inquired with a lightness which Daniel
thought extremely unbecoming under the circumstances.
"Well," he retorted irritably, "I'll admit that sometimes I do think
I'm a little too much married!"
"I'm afraid we've lost the art of keeping them within their 'true
sphere'; they've got rather beyond us in these days, haven't they?"
"They're not nearly so womanly as they used to be!" said Daniel
sullenly.
"But what are we going to do about it, poor shrimps that we are?
Suppose, for instance, that a man's wife has a quixotic idea of honour,
eccentric scruples about using money she thinks was not come by in
quite an ideal way, what's a corporation lawyer going to _do_ about it,
if she sets up her will, eh?"
"There are the quite easy divorce courts," said Daniel darkly.
"But there is also alimony."
"The marriage laws of our land," affirmed Daniel, "ought to be revised."
"They will be, as soon as women get the vote," said Walter. "And
then----"
But Margaret, fearing the lengths to which her brother-in-law might go
in this reckless mood, brought the talk abruptly to an end.
"It's a quarter to two, Daniel. You'll be late to your office. I'll
have dessert brought in at once. And you know it always takes you
fifteen minutes to say good-bye to the children. It feels so grand,
Walter, to refer to 'the children!' In the plural! I can't yet
believe or realize it! And as for Daniel--well, he's a Comic
Supplement, you know, about those twins," she rattled on, keeping the
talk, during the remainder of the luncheon, away from thin ice. So
that at last, when Daniel rose to go away, the suspicion roused by his
brother-in-law's remarks had been brushed aside and lost sight of; for
the time being, at least.