They were practically strangers to each other; and they jarred.

To inquire where the fault lay would have seemed to Mrs.Boyce futile.
* * * * * Darkness had come on fast, and Mrs.Boyce was in the act of ringing for lights when her husband entered.
"Where's Marcella ?" he asked as he threw himself into a chair with the air of irritable fatigue which was now habitual to him.
"Only gone to take off her things and tell William about tea.

She will be down directly." "Does she know about that settlement ?" "Yes, I told her.

She thought it generous, but not--I think--unsuitable.
The world cannot be reformed on nothing." "Reformed!--fiddlesticks!" said Mr.Boyce, angrily.

"I never saw a girl with a head so full of nonsense in my life.