rday he got paid, and the
drinking fit took him again.

"On Friday in the next week I happened to come back late--having had
a good stroke of work to do that day, in the way of cooking a public
dinner for a tavern-keeper who knew me. I found my husband gone, and
the bedroom stripped of the furniture which I had put into it. For the
second time he had robbed me of my own property, and had turned it into
money to be spent in drink.

"I didn't say a word. I stood and looked round the empty room. What was
going on in me I hardly knew myself at the time, and can't describe now.
All I remember is, that, after a little, I turned about to leave the
house. I knew the places where thy husband was likely to be found; and
the devil possessed me to go and find him. The landlady came out into
the passage and tried to stop me. She was a bigger and a stronger woman
than I was. But I shook her off like a child. Thinking over it now, I
believe she was in no condition to put out her strength. The sight of me
frightened her.

"I found him. I said--well, I said what a woman beside herself with fury
would be likely to say. It's needless to tell how it ended. He knocked
me down.

"After that, there is a spot of darkness like in my memory. The next
thing I can call to mind, is coming back to my senses after some days.
Three of my teeth were knocked out--but that was not the worst of it.
My head had struck against something in falling, and some part of me
(a nerve, I think they said) was injured in such a way as to affect my
speech. I don't mean that I was downright dumb--I only mean that, all
of a sudden, it had become a labor to me to speak. A long word was
as serious an obstacle as if I was a child again. They took me to the
hospital. When the medical gentlemen heard what it was, the medical
gentlemen came crowding round me. I appeared to lay hold of their
interest, just as a story-book lays hold of the interest of other
people. The upshot of it was, that I might end in being dumb, or I might
get my speech again--the chances were about equal. Only two things were
needful. One of them was that I should live on good nourishing diet. The
other was, that I should keep my mind easy.

"About the diet it was not possible to decide. My getting good
nourishing food and drink depended on my getting money to buy the same.
As to my mind, there was no difficulty about _that._ If my husband came
back to me, my mind was made up to kill him.

"Horri