her own
sex, and prospered in every sense of the word. Had her husband been the
least inclined to have asserted his rights, the position which she had
gained was sufficient to her reducing him to a state of subjection. She
had raised herself, unaided, far above him; he saw her continually
chatting and laughing with his own officers, to whom he was compelled to
make a respectful salute whenever they passed by him; he could not
venture to address her, or even to come into the shop, when his officers
were there, or it would have been considered disrespectful towards them;
and as he could not sleep out of barracks, all his intercourse with her
was to occasionally slink down by the area, to find something better to
eat than he could have in his own mess, or obtain from her an occasional
shilling to spend in beer. Ben, the marine, found at last that somehow
or another, his wife had slipped out of his hands; that he was nothing
more than a pensioner on her bounty a slave to her wishes, and a fetcher
and carrier at her command, and he resigned himself quietly to his fate,
as better men have done before.

CHAPTER THREE.

I think that the reader will agree with me that my mother showed in her
conduct great strength of character. She had been compelled to marry a
man whom she despised, and to whom she felt herself superior in every
respect; she had done so to save her reputation. That she had been in
error is true but situation and opportunity had conspired against her;
and when she found out the pride and selfishness of the man to whom she
was devoted, and for whom she had sacrificed so much,--when her ears
were wounded by proposals from his lips that she should take such a step
to avoid the scandal arising from their intimacy--when at the moment
that he made such a proposition, and the veil fell down and revealed the
heart of man in its selfishness, it is not to be wondered that, with
bitter tears, arising from wounded love, anger, and despair at her
hopeless position, she consented. After having lost all she valued,
what did she care for the future? It was but one sacrifice more to
make, one more proof of her devotion and obedience. But there are few
women who, like my mother, would have recovered her position to the
extent that she did. Had she not shown such determination, had she
consented to have accompanied her husband to the barracks, and have
mixed up with the other wives of the men, she would have gradual