Her husband certainly was quick tempered, holding her responsible for all the whims with which he exasperated his children, yet he could never bear to have her out of his sight.

The afternoons at the hotel Drouot would be most insipid for him unless she was at his side, the confidante of his plans and wrathful outbursts.
"To-day there is to be a sale of jewels; shall we go ?" He would make this proposition in such a gentle and coaxing voice--the voice that Dona Luisa remembered in their first talks around the old home.

And so they would go together, but by different routes;--she in one of the monumental vehicles because, accustomed to the leisurely carriage rides of the ranch, she no longer cared to walk; and Desnoyers--although owner of the four automobiles, heartily abominating them because he was conservative and uneasy with the complications of new machinery--on foot under the pretext that, through lack of work, his body needed the exercise.

When they met in the crowded salesrooms, they proceeded to examine the jewels together, fixing beforehand, the price they would offer.

But he, quick to become exasperated by opposition, always went further, hurling numbers at his competitors as though they were blows.