he was with what heights called a crowd yet neither of them acknowledged it in matrimonial geography the distance between the first mute recognition of a break and the admission thereof is as great as the distance between the first faith and the first doubting as he began to drift away he also began to see her as a human being to like and dislike her instead of accepting her as a comparatively part of the furniture and he that husband and wife relation which in years of married life had become a separate and real he recalled their high lights the summer in virginia meadows under the blue wall of the mountains their tour through and the of and the birth of their building of this new house planned to comfort them through a happy old age � they had said that it might be the last home either of them would ever have yet his most softening remembrance of these dear moments did not keep him from barking at dinner going out f few hours don t sit up for me he did not dare now to come home drunk and though he rejoiced in his return to high morality and spoke with gravity to and about their drinking he at s and meditated that a fellow couldn t ever learn to handle himself if he was always by a lot of women he no longer wondered if wasn t a bit worn and sentimental in contrast to the complacent he saw her as swift and air borne and radiant a fire spirit tenderly stooping to the hearth and however he on his wife he longed to be with then mrs tore the decent cloak from her and the astounded male discovered that she was having a small determined rebellion of her own m they were beside the fire place in the evening she said you haven t given me the list of your household expenses while i was away no i � haven t made it out yet very we must try to keep down expenses this year that s so i don t know where all the money goes to i try to but it just seems to i suppose i t to spend so much on cigars don t know but what i ll cut down my smoking maybe cut it out entirely i was thinking of a good way to do it the other day start on these and they d kind of disgust me with smoking oh i do wish you would it isn t that i care but honestly george it is so bad for you to smoke so much don t you think you could reduce the amount and george � i notice now when you come home from these and all that sometimes you smell of you know i don t worry so much about the moral side of it but you have a weak stomach and you can t stand all this drinking weak stomach hell i guess i can carry my about as well as most folks well i do think you ought to be careful don t you see dear i don t want you to get sick sick rats i m not a baby i guess i ain t going to get sick just because maybe once a week i shoot a that s the trouble with women they always so george i don t think you ought to talk that way when i m just speaking for your own good i know but all that s the trouble with women they re always and and bringing things up and then they say it s for your own good why george that s not a nice way to talk to answer me so short well i didn t mean to answer short but talking as if i was a not able to one without calling for the st mary s a fine idea you must have of me oh it isn t that it s just � i don t want to see you get sick and � my i didn t know it was so late don t forget to give me those household accounts for the time while i was away oh thunder what s the use of taking the trouble to make em out now let s just em for that period why george in all the years we ve been married we ve never failed to keep a complete account of every penny we ve spent no maybe that s the trouble with us what in the world do you mean oh i don t mean anything only � sometimes i get so sick and tired of all this routine and the at the office and expenses at home and and and and wearing myself out worrying over a lot of that doesn t really mean a thing and being so careful and � good lord what do you think i m made for i could have been a good orator and here i fuss and fret and worry � don t you suppose i ever get tired of i get so bored with ordering three meals a day three hundred and sixty five days a year and my eyes over that horrid sewing machine and looking after your clothes and s and ted s and s and everybody s and the and and going down to the to market and bringing my basket home to save money on the cash and � everything well with a certain astonishment i suppose maybe you do but talk about � here i have to be in the office every single day while you can go out all afternoon and see folks and visit with the neighbors and do any thing you want to yes and a fine lot of good that does me just talking over the same old things with the same old 