Read "The Garotters" by William Dean Howells online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
WILLIS, pausing in contemplation: ‘Hello! What's the matter? What's she trying to get out of you, Roberts? Don't you do it, anyway, old fellow.'
MRS. ROBERTS, in an ecstasy of satisfaction: ‘Willis! Oh, you've come in time to see him just as he is. Look at him, Willis! ' In the excess of her emotion she twitches her husband about, and with his arm fast in her clutch, presents him in the disadvantageous effect of having just been taken into custody. Under these circumstances Roberts's attempt at an expression of diffident heroism fails; he looks sneaking, he looks guilty, and his eyes fall under the astonished regard of his brother-in-law.