s. But she did neither, only looked up at
him with that inscrutable expression in her eyes, waiting for him to
speak.

"Now I suppose I shall have to look out for another secretary." Owen was
annoyed and showed it. "Thank Heaven, the proofs are about finished, but
this knocks the play on the head. I suppose I'll find someone else to
help me, but the whole thing is very absurd and annoying."

Suddenly Toni's self-control, already shaken by the meeting with Dowson,
deserted her completely.

She rose from her seat like a small whirlwind and confronted Owen with
scarlet cheeks and blazing eyes.

"Wait a moment, Owen. Don't say any more, please. Remember there is my
side of the question to be considered." She faced him bravely. "You knew
from the start that I was not literary or learned--I told you before we
were married that I wasn't half clever enough for you, and you said it
didn't matter. Then, when I'd tried to help you and failed, you got Miss
Loder here in my place. You knew I disliked her, but you didn't know
what cause I had for my dislike."

Owen, silenced by her vehemence, stared at her speechlessly, and she
went on hurriedly.

"From the first she despised me. She saw I wasn't well-educated, that I
wasn't even in her class. Oh, I know she is connected with all sorts of
people, but she ought not to have let me see so plainly that she looked
down on me as a nobody. She never lost a chance of humiliating me. Why,
at lunch over and over again I've sat silent while you and she talked.
If I ventured to speak, she listened, quite politely, till I had
finished, and then went on talking as though I'd not spoken. For days
and days I hardly saw you. You were shut up there with her, and I was
all alone. I was no one to you, she was everyone. I was your wife, but
she was your companion. Everyone noticed how I was left alone; they all
knew you ignored me--I was miserable, but you never saw----"

"You--miserable, Toni?" Owen spoke abruptly.

"How could I be anything else? You treated me always as a child--an
unreasonable, ignorant child----"

"Well?" Owen interrupted her, but his tone was one meant to conciliate,
for suddenly he thought he saw a way to end this deplorable scene. "And
aren't you a child? A pretty, engaging child, I grant you--but
still----"

"No." It was her turn to interrupt, and white to the lips she faced him.
"I am not a child any longer--I was until a short time ago, but you have
changed me into