Meek Irons finished buckling that shoe, and then lifted the other to the
edge of the chair, and proceeded to do the like for it, serenely, after
his wont, and seeming to hear nothing. So Mrs. Irons proceeded, as was
her custom when that patient person refused to be roused--she grasped
his collar near his cheek, meaning to shake him into attention.
But instantly, as the operation commenced, the clerk griped her with his
long, horny fingers by the throat, with a snap so sure and energetic
that not a cry, not a gasp even, or a wheeze, could escape through 'the
trachea,' as medical men have it; and her face and forehead purpled up,
and her eyes goggled and glared in her head; and her husband looked so
insanely wicked, that, as the pale picture darkened before her, and she
heard curse after curse, and one foul name after another hiss off his
tongue, like water off a hot iron, in her singing ears, she gave herself
up for lost. He closed this exercise by chucking her head viciously
against the board of the bed half-a-dozen times, and leaving her
thereafter a good deal more confused even than on the eventful evening
when he had first declared his love.
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