“To hear you anyone would think that I neglect you!”

“So you do!”

“You know that’s a lie.”

“Oh, do I? You think of nothing but china from the moment you get up to the moment you go to bed. I believe you dream about it. I’m beginning to wish you had to work for your living. Then you wouldn’t be able to gloat over your treasures all day long.”

George rose with extreme deliberation, and picked up his coffee cup.

“I think it is a little too much if I’m to be subjected to senseless tirades at breakfast!” he said. “I shall finish my coffee in the library.”

“No sooner had the door closed with exaggerated softness behind him, than Diana began to cry into her half-eaten egg.

She had been married to George Doone for just a year, and this was by no means the first quarrel they had had. Diana had only been nineteen when she had married George, and she had sallied gaily forth into her new life with no idea of the pitfalls ahead. During her six months’ engagement she had admired George’s collection of china, and had tried her best to make intelligent remarks on it. George had been so attentive that she had not realised how big a place in his heart china occupied. Her mother had warned her, and had even suggested that Diana should study the subject, but she had only laughed, and shaken her pretty head.

The first months of marriage were months of bliss. Then they came home from their long honeymoon abroad, and settled down in a beautiful Tudor house about twenty miles from London. Diana had her car and her horses, and a large allowance. She had every intention of enjoying life. George, too, meant to enjoy life; unhappily their ideas of enjoyment did not blend. George was not a dancing-man, and he was not fond of theatre-going. Diana had known this, but she had not anticipated a stubborn refusal to learn to dance, or that George would grumble when she suggested a theatre-party.

George had known that Diana was ignorant on the subject of china, but he had never imagined that her interest in his collection during their engagement was mere politeness. To him it was inconceivable that anyone could be bored when looking at a K’ang Hi Vase.

He very soon discovered that Diana thought his hobby wearisome and dull. Even then they might have learned to adapt themselves to each other’s tastes, if both had not been endowed with quick tempers. Neither had cultivated patience; any argument usually ended in a short but violent quarrel. It was not surprising that the quarrels grew more frequent. Diana began to think herself a neglected wife because George was often abstracted; George told himself that Diana was unreasonable and unjust.

HAVING rendered her egg wholly uneatable by her tears, Diana began to nibble at some toast, punctuating each bite with a watery sniff. To fortify herself for her coming interview with the cook-housekeeper she drank another cup of coffee. Then, being very young and inexperienced, she went in fear and trembling to the kitchen.