'Now, Eddie, I haven't said a word that could be turned into the least suggestion of disapproval of anything she did.'
'My dear, your whole manner has expressed disapproval. You won't do things in the way we do them. After all, the way you lived in Tunbridge Wells isn't the only way people can live. Our ways suit us, and when you live amongst us you must adopt them.'
'She's never given me a chance to learn them,' said Nora obstinately. 'She treated me with suspicion and enmity the very first day I came here. When she sneered at me because I talked of a station instead of a depot, of
Marsh made a pleading gesture.
'Why can't you humor her? You see, you've got to take the blame for all the English people who came here in the past and were lazy, worthless and supercilious. They called us Colonials and turned up their noses at us. What do you expect us to do?--say, 'Thank you very much, sir.' 'We know we're not worthy to black your boots.' 'Don't bother to work, it'll be a pleasure for us to give you money'? It's no good blinking the fact. There was a great prejudice against the English. But it's giving way now, and every sensible man and woman who comes out can do something to destroy it.'
'All I can say,' said Nora, going over to the stove to change her iron, 'is if you're tired of having me here, I can go back to Winnipeg. I shan't have any difficulty in finding something to do.'
'Good Lord, I don't want you to go. I like having you here. It's--it's company for Gertie. And jobs aren't so easy to find as you think, especially now the winter's coming on; everyone wants a job in the city.'
'What do you want me to do?'
'I want you to make the best of things and meet her half-way. You must make allowances for her even if you think her unreasonable. It's Gertie you've got to spend most of your time with.'
He was so manifestly distressed and, as he hadn't been so hard on her as she had expected and in her own heart felt that she deserved, Nora softened at once.
'I'll have a try.'
'That's a good girl. And I think you ought to apologize to her for what you said just now.'
'I?' said Nora, aflame at once. 'I've got nothing to apologize for. She drove me to distraction.'
There was a moment's pause while Eddie softly damned the pipe he had forgotten to fill, for not keeping lighted.
'She says she won't speak to you again unless you beg her pardon.'
'Really! Does she look upon that as a great hardship?'
'My dear! We're twelve miles from the nearest store. We're thrown upon each other for the entire winter. Last year there was a bad blizzard, and we didn't see a soul outside the farm for six weeks. Unless we learn to put up with one another's whims, life becomes a perfect hell.'
Nora stopped her work and set down her iron.
'You can go on talking all night, Eddie, I'll never apologize. Time after time when she sneered at me till my blood boiled, I've kept my temper. She deserved ten times more than I said. Do you think I'm going to knuckle under to a woman like that?'
'Remember she's my wife, Nora.'
'Why didn't you marry a lady?'
'What the dickens do you think is the use of being a lady out here?'
'You've degenerated since you left England.'
'Now look here, my dear, I'll just tell you what Gertie did for me. She was a waitress in Winnipeg at the Minnedosa Hotel, and she was making money. She knew what the life was on a farm--much harder than anything she'd been used to in the city--but she accepted all the hardship of it and the monotony of
