Still, she lacked economy. They went to the same _cremery_, but her
meals cost one half more than his. She never objected to a ride in a
_voiture_; she liked to go to the balls, but walked very soberly upon
his arm, recognizing nobody, and exacting the same behavior from Ralph.
Let him look at an unusually pretty girl, through a shop-window, upon
his peril! If a letter came for him signed Lizzie, or Annie, or Mary,
she took the dictionary and tried to interpret it, and in the end called
him a _vilain_ and wept.
Toward the letters signed "Lizzie" she conceived a deep antipathy. With
a woman's instinct she discerned that "Lizzie" was more to Ralph than
any other correspondent. A single letter satisfied her of this; and when
he was reading it, for the second time, she snatched it from his hand
and flung it fiercely upon the floor. Ralph's eyes blazed menace and her
own cowered.
"Take up that letter, Suzette!"
"I won't!"
"Take it up, I say! I command! instantly!" He had risen to his feet,
and was the master now. She stooped, with pale jealousy lying whitely in
her temples, and gave it to him meekly, and sat down very stricken and
desolate. There was one whom he loved better than her--she felt it
bitterly--a love more respectful, more profound--a woman, perhaps, whom
he meant to make his wife some day, when SHE should be only a shameful
memory!
It may have been the reproach of this infidelity, or the thought of his
home, or the infatuation of his present guileful attachment, which kept
Ralph Flare from labor.
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