In that event," he added, "you'd better leave your joint address when you find a more convenient house than mine." As a matter of fact, he had really meant nothing more than the threat and the insult, the situation permitting him a heavier hold upon his wife and a new grip on Gerald in case he ever needed him; but threat and insult were very real to the boy, and he knocked Mr.Ruthven flat on his back--the one thing required to change that gentleman's pretence to deadly earnest.
Ruthven scrambled to his feet; Gerald did it again; and, after that, Mr.
Ruthven prudently remained prone during the delivery of a terse but concise opinion of him expressed by Gerald.
After Gerald had gone, Ruthven opened first one eye, then the other, then his mouth, and finally sat up; and his wife, who had been curiously observing him, smiled.
"It is strange," she said serenely, "that I never thought of that method.

I wonder why I never thought of it," lazily stretching her firm young arms and glancing casually at their symmetry and smooth-skinned strength.

"Go into your own quarters," she added, as he rose, shaking with fury: "I've endured the last brutality I shall ever suffer from you." She dropped her folded hands into her lap, gazing coolly at him; but there was a glitter in her eyes which arrested his first step toward her.
"I think," she said, "that you mean my ruin.

Well, we began it long ago, and I doubt if I have anything of infamy to learn, thanks to my thorough schooling as your wife.

.