The dinner in the kitchen was flung under the grate; the cloth was off the parlor table.

Where was the knife?
Unwisely, he asked for it.

She was only too glad of the opportunity of irritating him which the request afforded her.

"He wanted the knife, did he?
Could he give her a reason why?
No! Then he should not have it--not if he went down on his knees to ask for it." Further recriminations elicited the fact that she had bought it a bargain, and that she considered it her own especial property.

Isaac saw the uselessness of attempting to get the knife by fair means, and determined to search for it, later in the day, in secret.