Part 26 (2/2)

CHARLES SYLVESTER.

Not but what she is a good sort--I don't want to say anything against her.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Of course not.

CHARLES SYLVESTER.

But--I suppose she's too fond of me.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

It's a way wives have--they repay the superabundance of your devotion during the courts.h.i.+p.

CHARLES SYLVESTER.

Exactly. She's jealous.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Of whom?

CHARLES SYLVESTER.

Of n.o.body--of everyone. Of my past, which was rather more decent than most fellows--of my life to-day, which is a pattern for a County Councillor.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Poor beggar.

CHARLES SYLVESTER.

You're sorry for me?

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Devilishly. To be married to a jealous woman!--what a fate.

CHARLES SYLVESTER (_with a groan_).

Ah! Tempenny, there was a girl I used to know when I was a bachelor--she was a model. My wife found her likeness one day after we were married. A likeness, nothing more--I thought I had destroyed it.

Well, if you'd have heard the ructions she made; you'd have thought she'd found a harem.

REMBRANDT TEMPENNY.

Ah!

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