Part 11 (2/2)
”That these doc.u.ments are correct.”
”They are, no doubt, if they bear my signature. I have a bad memory, especially for money matters.”
”A happy gift,” he replied with an ironical smile, as he went through the papers in his pocket-book. ”I, too, have often tried to forget them.
Unfortunately my cas.h.i.+er makes it his business to refresh my memory.
Well,” he went on as his wife said no more, ”I came up solely to ask you a question--namely: Do you suppose that things can go on like this?”
”I do not understand.”
”I will explain. Do you suppose that you can go on drawing on my account every few days such sums as these?”
Clementina, who had been pale at first, had coloured crimson.
”You know better than I.”
”Why better? You ought to know the amount of your fortune.”
”Well, but I do not know,” she replied, sharply.
”Nothing can be more simple. The six hundred thousand dollars which your father paid over when we were married, being invested in real estate, produce, as you may see by the books, about twenty-two thousand dollars a year. The expenses of the house, without counting my private outlay, amounts to about three times as much. You can surely draw your own conclusions.”
”If you are vexed at your money being spent you can sell the houses,”
said Clementina with scornful brevity, her colour fading to paleness again.
”But if they were sold I should none the less be responsible for the whole value. You know that?”
”I will sign you any paper you like, saying that I hold you responsible for nothing.”
”That is not enough, my dear. The law will never release me from responsibility for your fortune, so long as I have any money. Moreover, if you spend it in pleasure”--and he emphasised the word--”it may be all very well for you, but deplorable for me, because I shall still be compelled to supply you with--necessaries.”
”To keep me, in short?” she said with a bitter intonation.
”I wished to avoid the word; but it is no doubt exact.”
Osorio spoke in an impertinent and patronising tone, which piqued his wife's pride in every possible way. Ever since the violent differences which had led to their separation under the same roof, they had had no such important interview as this. When, in the course of daily life, they came into collision, matters were smoothed over with a short explanation, in which both parties, without compromising their pride, used some prudence for fear of a scandal. But the present question touched Osorio in a vital part. To a banker money is the chief fact in life.
His personal pride, too, had suffered greatly in the last few years, though he had not confessed it. It was not enough to feign indifference and disdain of his wife's misconduct; it was not enough to pay her back in her own coin, by flaunting his mistresses in her face and making a parade of them in public. Both fought with the same weapons, but a woman can inflict with them far deeper wounds than a man. The misery he suffered from his wife's disreputable life did not diminish as time went on; the gulf which parted them grew wider and deeper. And so revenge was ready to seize this opportunity by the forelock.
Clementina looked him in the face for a moment. Then, shrugging her shoulders and with a contemptuous curl of her lips, she turned on her heel and was about to leave the room. Osorio stepped forward between her and the door.
”Before you go you must understand that the cas.h.i.+er has my orders to pay you no cheques that do not bear my signature.”
”I understand.”
”For your regular expenses I will allow a fixed sum on which we will agree. But I can have no more surprises on the cash-box.”
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