"Alfred!" gasped Zoie. This was really going too far.
"Yes, I repeat it!" shouted Alfred, pounding the table with his fist for
emphasis. "The moment you GOT me, you declared that all children were
horrid little insects, and that someone ought to sprinkle bug-powder on
them."
"Oh!" protested Zoie, shocked less by Alfred's interpretation of her
sentiments, than by the vulgarity with which he expressed them.
"On another occasion," declared Alfred, now carried away by the recital
of his long pent up wrongs, "you told me that all babies should be put
in cages, shipped West, and kept in pens until they got to be of an
interesting age. 'Interesting age!'" he repeated with a sneer, "meaning
old enough to take YOU out to luncheon, I suppose."
"I never said any such thing," objected Zoie.
"Well, that was the idea," insisted Alfred. "I haven't your glib way of
expressing myself."
"You manage to express yourself very well," retorted Zoie. "When
you have anything DISAGREEABLE to say. As for babies," she continued
tentatively, "I think they are all very well in their PLACE, but they
were NEVER meant for an APARTMENT."
"I offered you a house in the country," shouted Alfred.
"The country!" echoed Zoie. "How could I live in the country, with
people being murdered in their beds every night? Read the papers."
"Always an excuse," sighed Alfred resignedly. "There always HAS been
and there always would be if I'd stay to listen. Well, for once," he
declared, "I'm glad that we have no children. If we had, I might feel
some obligation to keep up this farce of a marriage. As it is," he
continued, "YOU are free and I am free." And with a courtly wave of
his arm, he dismissed Zoie and the entire subject, and again he started
in pursuit of Mary and his hat.
"If it's your freedom you wish," pouted Zoie with an abused air, "you
might have said so in the first place."
Alfred stopped in sheer amazement at the cleverness with which the
little minx turned his every statement against him.
"It's not very manly of you," she continued, "to abuse me just because
you've found someone whom you like better."
"That's not true," protested Alfred hotly, "and you know it's not true."
Little did he suspect the trap into which she was leading him.