"My dear girl," I protested, "I don't want to be a burden in your life--I want to help you!'"
"But," she exclaimed, "what must you have thought--"
"I thought I had made a lucky escape!" I laughed.
She was proud--proud as an Indian; it was hard for her to make admissions about her husband. But then--we were like two errant school-girls, who had been caught m an escapade! "I don't know what I'm going to do about him," she said, with a wry smile. "He really won't listen--I can't make any impression on him."
"Did he guess that you'd come there on purpose?" I asked.
"I'd meant to keep it secret--I wouldn't have minded telling him a fib about a little thing. But he made it so very serious!"
I could understand that it must have been serious after the telling. I waited for her to add what news she chose.
"It seems," she said, "that my husband has a cousin, a pupil of Mrs. Frothingham's. You can imagine!"
"I can imagine Mrs. Frothingham may lose a pupil."
"No; my husband says his Uncle Archibald always was a fool. But how can anyone be so narrow! He seemed to take Mrs. Frothingham as a personal affront."
This was the most definite bit of vexation against her husband that she had ever let me see. I decided to turn it into a jest. "Mrs. Frothingham will be glad to know she was understood," I said.
"But seriously, why can't men have open minds about politics and money?" She went on in a worried voice: "I knew he was like this when I met him at Harvard. He was living in his own house, aloof from the poorer men--the men who were most worth while, it seemed to me. And when I told him of the bad effect he was having on these men and on his own character as well, he said he would do whatever I asked--he even gave up his house and went to live in a dormitory. So I thought I had some influence on him. But now, here is the same thing again, only I find that one can't take a stand against one's husband. At least, he doesn't admit the right." She hesitated. "It doesn't seem loyal to talk about it."
"My dear girl," I said with an impulse of candour, "there isn't much you can tell me about that problem. My own marriage went to pieces on that rock."
I saw a look of surprise upon her face. "I haven't told you my story yet," I said. "Some day I will--when you feel you know me well enough for us to exchange confidences."