"Don't talk in that way," he said.

"If you're joking--it's a joke I don't see.

If you're in earnest--you force a suspicion on me which I would rather not feel.

Let us change the subject." "No! Let us have it out at once.

What do you suspect ?" "I suspect you are getting tired of your wife." "She is forty-two, and I am thirty-five; and I have been married to her for thirteen years.