when my temper gets loose. Mary saw the
devil's light in my eyes, and she ran forward with her hands on my
sleeve. 'Don't, Jim, don't!' says she. 'Where's Sarah?' I asked. 'In the
kitchen,' says she. 'Sarah,' says I, as I went in, 'this man Fairbairn
is never to darken my door again.' 'Why not?' says she. 'Because I order
it.' 'Oh!' says she, 'if my friends are not good enough for this house,
then I am not good enough for it either.' 'You can do what you like,'
says I, 'but if Fairbairn shows his face here again, I'll send you one
of his ears for a keepsake." She was frightened by my face, I think, for
she never answered a word, and the same evening she left my house.

"Well, I don't know now whether it was pure devilry on the part of this
woman, or whether she thought that she could turn me against my wife by
encouraging her to misbehave. Anyway, she took a house just two streets
off, and let lodgings to sailors. Fairbairn used to stay there, and Mary
would go round to have tea with her sister and him. How often she went I
don't know, but I followed her one day, and as I broke in at the door
Fairbairn got away over the back garden wall, like the cowardly skunk
that he was. I swore to my wife that I would kill her if I found her in
his company again, and I led her back with me, sobbing and trembling,
and as white as a piece of paper. There was no trace of love between us
any longer. I could see that she hated me and feared me, and when the
thought of it drove me to drink, then she despised me as well.

"Well, Sarah found that she could not make a living in Liverpool, so she
went back, as I understand, to live with her sister in Croydon, and
things jogged on much the same as ever at home. And then came this last
week and all the misery and ruin.

"It was in this way. We had gone on the _May Day_ for a round voyage of
seven days, but a hogshead got loose and started one of our plates, so
that we had to put back into port for twelve hours. I left the ship and
came home, thinking what a surprise it would be for my wife, and hoping
that maybe she would be glad to see me so soon. The thought was in my
head as I turned into my own street, and at that moment a cab passed me,
and there she was, sitting by the side of Fairbairn, the two chatting
and laughing, with never a thought for me as I stood watching them from
the footpath.

"I tell you, and I give you my word on it, that from that moment I was
not my own master, and it