"
"Why did you buy a pistol, then?" inquired my better half.
"So that the children needn't shoot themselves with it after it was
locked up and the cartridges carefully hidden," I replied, with levity.
We were both so heated that we had practically forgotten that flat
burglary was supposed to be going on.
"You didn't use to talk in that way," said Josephine, with slow
precision. "I only hope, Fred, for your sake that people won't hear
about this."
"They will not, certainly, unless you tell them, Josephine."
"Tell them? I wouldn't mention what has happened for the world," she
answered, looking at me with a sort of sorrowful disdain. Thus is it
that the ideals which women form concerning us are one by one shattered!
I am sure that Josephine would have been inconsolable had I fallen a
victim to the bullet of a house-breaker. You will recall that her first
impulse was to prevent me from exposing myself for the sake of the solid
silver service. She had taken it for granted that I would slip the bolt
and go part way down stairs, at least, pistol in hand, and she had wished
to caution me against undue rashness. Consequently, it was a rude blow
to her sensibilities to find that I was such a craven. She cared no more
for our apostle spoons and gold-lined vegetable dishes than I did; it was
the principle of the thing which distressed her.
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