It's been mighty hard for me.

Hasn't it been hard for you ?" Mrs.De Peyster remained silent.
"Hasn't it been hard for you, dear ?" William insisted tenderly.
"Ye--yes," very huskily.
"Why, what's the matter, Matilda?
I know; you're tired, dear; your nerves are all worn out with the strain of getting Mrs.De Peyster off." Again his voice became tenderly indignant.

"Just see how she treated that Miss Gardner; and wouldn't she have done the same to us, if she'd found us out?
To think, dear, that but for her attitude you and me might have been married and happy! I know you are devoted to her, and wouldn't leave her, and I know she's kind enough in her way, but I tell you, Matilda,"-- William's voice, so superbly without expression when on duty, was alive with conviction,--"I tell you, Matilda, she's a regular female tyrant!" There was a mighty surging within Mrs.De Peyster, a premonition of eruption.

But she choked it down.

William, launched upon the placid sea of his elderly affection, did not heed that his supposed inamorata was making no replies.
"She's a regular tyrant!" he repeated.