But just now it won't do.

And to begin with, take this damned thing off.

One can't tell whether one is talking to a dummy or to a live woman." He advanced, and stretching out his hand, dragged the veil off, unmasking a still, unreadable face, against which his nervous exasperation was shattered like a glass bubble flung against a rock.

"That's better," he said, to cover his momentary uneasiness, and retreated back to his old station by the mantelpiece.

It never entered his head that his wife could give him up.