He took up the challenge.

He asked her in plain words the question which his eyes had already demanded.
"I find myself constrained to ask you," he said, in a studiously measured tone, "by what means you became possessed of the pearls you are wearing?
I do not seem to remember them as your property." Her eyes flashed.
"Don't you think," she returned, "that you are a little outstepping your privileges ?" "Not in the least," he declared.

"You are my wife, and although you have defied me in a certain matter, you are still subject to my authority.

I see you wearing jewels in public of which you were certainly not possessed a few months ago, and which neither your fortune nor mine--" "Let me set your mind at rest," she interrupted icily.

"The pearls are not mine.