g against God and
themselves.

You are so good to my spouse and me as to say you shall always
think yourself obliged to him for his civilities to me. I hope
he will always continue to use me better than I deserve in one
respect.

_I think exactly the same of my marriage as I did before it
happened_; but though I would have given at least one of my eyes
for the liberty of throwing myself at your feet before I was
married at all, yet, since it is past and matrimonial grievances
are usually irreparable, I hope you will condescend to be so far
of my opinion as to own that, since upon some accounts I am
happier than I deserve, it is best to say little of things quite
past remedy, and endeavour, as I really do, to make myself more
and more contented, though things may not be to my wish.

Though I cannot justify my late indiscreet letter, yet I am not
more than human, and if the calamities of life sometimes wring a
complaint from me, I need tell no one that though I bear I must
feel them. And if you cannot forgive what I have said, I
sincerely promise never more to offend by saying too much; which
(with begging your blessing) is all from your most obedient
daughter,
Mehetabel Wright.

CHAPTER V.

You who can read between the lines of these letters will have
remarked a new accent in Hetty--a hard and bitter accent. She will
suffer her punishment now; but, even though it be sent of God, she
will appeal against it as too heavy for her sin.

Learn now the cause of it and condemn her if you can.

At first when her husband, at the close of his day's work, sidled off
to the "Turk's Head," she pretended not to remark it. Indeed her
fears were long in awaking. In all her life she had never tasted
brandy, and knew nothing of its effects. That Dick Ellison fuddled
himself upon it was notorious, and on her last visit to Wroote she
had heard scandalous tales of John Romley, who had come to haunt the
taverns in and about Epworth, singing songs and soaking with the
riff-raff of the neighbourhood until turned out at midnight to roll
homeward to his lonely lodgings. She connected drunkenness with
uproarious mirth, boon companionship, set orgies. Of secret unsocial
tippling she had as yet no apprehension.

Even before the birth of his second child the tavern had become
necessar