 care to
give me the help even of a kind word. You get away from me as often as you can,
as if to remind me that we have no longer any interests in common. Other people
are your confidants; you speak of me to them as if I were purposely dragging you
down into a mean condition.«
    »How can you know what I say about you?«
    »Isn't it true?« he asked, flashing an angry glance at her.
    »It is not true. Of course I have talked to mother about our difficulties;
how could I help it?«
    »And to other people.«
    »Not in a way that you could find fault with.«
    »In a way that makes me seem contemptible to them. You show them that I have
made you poor and unhappy, and you are glad to have their sympathy.«
    »What you mean is, that I oughtn't to see anyone. There's no other way of
avoiding such a reproach as this. So long as I don't laugh and sing before
people, and assure them that things couldn't be more hopeful, I shall be asking
for their sympathy, and against you. I can't understand your unreasonableness.«
    »I'm afraid there is very little in me that you can understand. So long as
my prospects seemed bright, you could sympathise readily enough; as soon as ever
they darkened, something came between us. Amy, you haven't done your duty. Your
love hasn't stood the test as it should have done. You have given me no help;
besides the burden of cheerless work I have had to bear that of your growing
coldness. I can't remember one instance when you have spoken to me as a wife
might - a wife who was something more than a man's housekeeper.«
    The passion in his voice and the harshness of the accusation made her unable
to reply.
    »You said rightly,« he went on, »that I have always been kind and gentle. I
never thought I could speak to you, or feel to you, in any other way. But I have
undergone too much, and you have deserted me. Surely it was too soon to do that.
So long as I endeavoured my utmost, and loved you the same as ever, you might
have remembered all you once said to me. You might have given me help, but you
haven't cared to.«
    The impulses which had part in this outbreak were numerous
