"How long have you been adviser as to whom I had better or better not see?" asked MacBirney contemptuously.
"You will find me a good adviser on some points in your affairs, and that is one."
"If you value your advice highly, you should part with it sparingly."
"I know what _you_ value highly; and if Robert Kimberly finds out you are consorting with Lambert it will end your usefulness in _his_ combinations very suddenly."
The thrust, severe in any event, was made keener by the fact that it frightened him into rage. "Since you come from a family that has made such a brilliant financial showing--" he began.
"Oh, I know," she returned wearily, "but you had better take care." He looked at his wife astounded. "You have insulted me enough," she added calmly, "about the troubles of my father. The ’first five years’ are at an end. I have spoiled you, Walter, by taking your abuse so long without striking back and I won’t do it any more."
"What do you mean?" he cried, springing from his chair. "Do you think you are to keep your doors bolted against me for six months at a time and then browbeat and abuse me when I come into your room to talk to you? Who paid for these clothes you wear?" he demanded, pointing in a fury.
"I try never to think of that, Walter," replied Alice, rising to her feet but controlling herself more than she could have believed possible. "I try never to think of the price I have paid for anything I have; if I did, I should go mad and strip these rags from my shoulders."
She stood her ground with flashing eyes. "_I, not you_," she cried, "have paid for what I have and the clothes I wear. _I_ paid for them--not you--with my youth and health and hopes and happiness. I paid for them with the life of my little girl; with all that a wretched woman can sacrifice to a brute. Paid for them! God help me! How haven’t I paid for them?"
She stopped for sheer breath, but before he could find words she spoke again. "Now, I am done with you forever. I am out of your power forever. Thank God, some one will protect me from your brutality for the rest of my life----"
MacBirney clutched the back of a chair. "So you have picked up a lover, have you? This sounds very edifying from my dear, dutiful, religious wife." Hardly able to form the words between his trembling lips, he smiled horribly.