
carpet; Reardon looked about the room, but saw nothing. He had thrown his hat
into a chair, and his fingers worked nervously together behind his back.
    »Will you tell me,« he said at length, »how your position is regarded by
these friends of yours? I don't mean your mother and brother, but the people who
come to this house.«
    »I have not asked such people for their opinion.«
    »Still, I suppose some sort of explanation has been necessary in your
intercourse with them. How have you represented your relations with me?«
    »I can't see that that concerns you.«
    »In a manner it does. Certainly it matters very little to me how I am
thought of by people of this kind, but one doesn't like to be reviled without
cause. Have you allowed it to be supposed that I have made life with me
intolerable for you?«
    »No, I have not. You insult me by asking the question, but as you don't seem
to understand feelings of that kind I may as well answer you simply.«
    »Then have you told them the truth? That I became so poor you couldn't live
with me?«
    »I have never said that in so many words, but no doubt it is understood. It
must be known also that you refused to take the step which might have helped you
out of your difficulties.«
    »What step?«
    She reminded him of his intention to spend half a year in working at the
seaside.
    »I had utterly forgotten it,« he returned with a mocking laugh. »That shows
how ridiculous such a thing would have been.«
    »You are doing no literary work at all?« Amy asked.
    »Do you imagine that I have the peace of mind necessary for anything of that
sort?«
    This was in a changed voice. It reminded her so strongly of her husband
before his disasters that she could not frame a reply.
    »Do you think I am able to occupy myself with the affairs of imaginary
people?«
    »I didn't necessarily mean fiction.«
    »That I can forget myself, then, in the study of literature? - I wonder
whether you really think of me like that. How, in Heaven's name, do you suppose
I spend my leisure time?«
    She made no answer.
    »Do you think I take this calamity as light-heartedly as you do, Amy?«
    »I am far from taking it light-heartedly
