I've seen her
at the theatre. She'd pick out one person and run him down with her
great bold eyes until he had to bow to her, and then she'd stalk
another in the same way. Call or her, indeed! Why, Fred, she'd invite
you to a dinner _tete-a-tete_ to-day, if she thought you'd go."
Mr. Staggchase laughed rather significantly.
"Gad! that might be amusing. She is of the kittle cattle, my dear, but
you must own that she's a well-built craft."
"Oh, certainly," replied his better half, who was too canny by far to
show annoyance, if indeed she felt any, when her husband praised
another woman. "If everybody isn't aware of her good points, it isn't
that she is averse to advertising them. She has taken up with young
Stanton, the sculptor, just because some of us have been interested in
him."
"Is he going to make the _America_ statue?"
"That is still uncertain, but for my part I half hope he won't, if that
Sampson woman is his kind."
Mr. Staggchase dipped his long fingers into his finger bowl, wiped them
with great deliberation and then pushed his chair back from the table.
It was very seldom that his wife denied a request he made her, but when
she did he knew better than to contend in the matter.
"Very well," he said, "you may do whatever you please. Whether you
women are so devilish hard on each other because you know your own sex
is more than I should undertake to say.
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