folding her white arms sparkling with gold and gems upon her swelling breast turned away her eyes if she had been less h and less stately in her cold composure she might not have had the power of him with the sense of disadvantage that penetrated through his utmost pride but she had the power and he felt it keenly he glanced round the room saw how the splendid means of al and the luxuries of dress were scattered and there and disregarded not in mere caprice and or so he thought but in a steadfast haughty disregard of costly things and felt it more and more of flowers feathers jewels and look where he would he saw riches despised poured out and made of no account the very diamonds � a marriage � that rose and fell upon her bosom seemed to to break the chain that clasped them round her neck and roll down on the floor where she might tread upon them s i and son he felt his disadvantage and he showed it solemn and strange among this wealth of color and glitter strange and constrained towards its haughty mistress whose beauty it repeated and presented all around him as in so many fragments of a mirror he was conscious of embarrassment and awkwardness nothing that to her self possession could fail to him and irritated with himself he sat down and went on in no improved humor mrs it is very necessary that there should be some understanding arrived at between us your conduct does not please me madam she merely glanced at him again and again averted her eyes but she might have spoken for an hour and expressed less i repeat mrs does not please me i have already taken occasion to request that it may be corrected i now insist upon it you chose a fitting occasion for your first remonstrance sir and you adopt a fitting manner and a fitting word for your second you insist to me madam said mr with his most ofi air of state i have made you my wife you bear my name you are associated with my position and my reputation i will not say that the world in general may be disposed to think you honored by that association but i will say that i am accustomed to insist to my and which may you be pleased to consider me she asked possibly i may think that my wife should partake � or does partake and cannot help of both characters mrs she bent her eyes upon him and set her trembling lips he saw her bosom throb and saw her face flush and turn white all this he could know and did but he could not know that one word was whispered in the deep s of her heart to keep her quiet and that the word was blind idiot rushing to a precipice he thought she stood in i we of him f you are too expensive madam said mr you and son are extravagant you waste a great deal of or what would be a great deal in the pockets of most gentlemen � in a kind of society that is useless to me and indeed that the whole is disagreeable to me i have to insist upon a total change in all these respects i know that in the novelty of possessing a of such means as fortune has placed at your disposal ladies are apt to run into a sudden extreme there has been more than enough of that extreme i beg that mrs s very different experiences may now come to the instruction of mrs still the fixed look the trembling lips the throbbing breast he face now crimson and now white and still the deep whisper speaking to her in the beating of her heart his insolence of self importance dilated as he saw this alteration in her swollen no less by her past scorn of him and his so recent feeling of disadvantage than by her present submission as he took it to be it became too mighty for his breast and burst all bounds why who could long resist his will and pleasure he had resolved to conquer her and look here you will further please madam said mr in a tone of sovereign command to understand distinctly that i am to be deferred to and obeyed that i must have a positive show and confession of deference before the world madam i am used to this i require it as my right in short i will have it i consider it no unreasonable return for the worldly advancement that has befallen you and i believe nobody will be surprised either at its being required from you or at your making it to me � to me he added with emphasis no word from her no change in her her eyes upon him i have learnt from your mother mrs said with importance what no doubt you know namely that is for her health mr has been so good � she changed suddenly her face and bosom glowed as if the red light of an angry sunset had been flung upon them not of the change and putting his own interpretation upon it mr resumed l and son mr has been ao good as to go down and � house there for a on the return of the establishment to london i take steps for its better management as i consider necessary one of these will be the engagement at if it is to be effected of a very respectable reduced person there a formerly employed in a situation of trust in my family to act as housekeeper an establishment like this presided over but mrs requires a competent head she had changed her attitude before he arrived at these words and bow sat � still looking at him burning a round and round upon 