r took that effect on me. I always turned
cold under them instead of hot. Bad for me, I dare say; but what you
are--you are. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his
spots?

"I got away from him once more, and found good employment once more. It
don't matter how, and it don't matter where. My story is always the same
thing, over and over again. Best get to the end.

"There was one change, however, this time. My employment was not in a
private family. I was also allowed to teach cookery to young women, in
my leisure hours. What with this, and what with a longer time passing
on the present occasion before my husband found me out, I was as
comfortably off as in my position I could hope to be. When my work was
done, I went away at night to sleep in a lodging of my own. It was only
a bedroom; and I furnished it myself--partly for the sake of economy
(the rent being not half as much as for a furnished room); and partly
for the sake of cleanliness. Through all my troubles I always liked
things neat about me--neat and shapely and good.

"Well, it's needless to say how it ended. He found me out again--this
time by a chance meeting with me in the street.

"He was in rags, and half starved. But that didn't matter now. All he
had to do was to put his hand into my pocket and take what he wanted.
There is no limit, in England, to what a bad husband may do--as long as
he sticks to his wife. On the present occasion, he was cunning enough to
see that he would be the loser if he disturbed me in my employment. For
a while things went on as smoothly as they could. I made a pretense that
the work was harder than usual; and I got leave (loathing the sight of
him, I honestly own) to sleep at the place where I was employed. This
was not for long. The fit took him again, in due course; and he came
and made a disturbance. As before, this was not to be borne by decent
people. As before, they were sorry to part with me. As before, I lost my
place.

"Another woman would have gone mad under it. I fancy it just missed, by
a hair's breadth, maddening Me.

"When I looked at him that night, deep in his drunken sleep, I thought
of Jael and Sisera (see the book of Judges; chapter 4th; verses 17 to
21). It says, she 'took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her
hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples,
and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he
died.' She did this deed to del