"A priest mumbled
something over us, but it meant nothing then or now. I have
tolerated you because you were useful. I have carried you with me
as I carry a maid or a butler. I bought a manikin and dressed it
up and put breath into it for my own convenience, and I owe you
nothing, do you understand--nothing! The debt is all on your side,
as you and I and all the world know."
"Who made me a manikin?" he demanded, with womanish fury, a fury
that had been striving for utterance these many years. "I had
ambitions and hopes and ability once--not much, perhaps, but
enough--before you married me. I was nothing great, but I was
getting along. I had confidence, too, but you took it away from
me. You--you absorbed me. You had your father's brain, and it was
too big for me; it overshadowed mine. In a way you were a vampire;
for what I had you drained me of. At first it was terrible to feel
that I was inferior, but I loved you, and although I had some
pride--" He choked an instant and threw back her incredulous stare
defiantly. "I let myself be eliminated. You thought you were doing
me a favor when you put me forward as a figurehead, but to me it
was a tragedy. I COULDN'T HELP LETTING YOU DO IT. Do you realize
what that means to a fellow? I quit fighting for my own
individuality, I became colored by you, I took on your ways, your
habits, your mental traits, and--all the time I knew what was
happening.
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