ht, there not being a mouthful in the house to eat, I went out
and bought a loaf of bread and some milk for Benton's breakfast; for I
was careful not to risk the child's health as I risked my own. In the
morning when I came down stairs the bread and milk were gone. Mr.
Seabrook had breakfasted. 'Bennie' and I could go hungry. And that
brings me back to what 'town talk' did for me.

"It soon became noised about that Mr. and Mrs. Seabrook, who had never
got on well together, were now going on dreadfully, and that probably
there would be a divorce. 'Divorce!' I said, when my new friend, the
minister, mentioned it to me, 'divorce from what? How can there be a
divorce where there is no marriage?' 'Nevertheless,' he replied, 'it is
worth considering. If the society you live in insist that you are
married, why not gratify this society, and ask its leave to be legally
separated from your nominal husband?'

"At first I rebelled strongly against making this tacit admission of a
relationship of that kind to Mr. Seabrook. It appeared to me to be a
confession of falsehood to those few persons who were in my confidence,
some of whom I felt had always half-doubted the full particulars, as
being too ugly for belief. And what was quite as unpalatable as the
other was that my enemy would rejoice that for once, at least, and in a
public record, I should have to confess myself his wife. My friends
argued that it could make little difference, as that was the popular
understanding already, which nothing could alter; and that so far as Mr.
Seabrook was concerned his triumph would be short-lived and valueless.
They undertook to procure counsel, and stand by me through the trial."

"What complaint did you purpose making?" I interrupted.

"'Neglect of support, and cruel treatment;' the general charge that is
made to cover so many abominable sins, because we women shrink from
exposing the crimes we have been in a measure partners to. My attorney
assured me that, under the circumstances, Mr. Seabrook would not make
any opposition, fearing we might prove the whole, if he did so; but
would let the case go by default. This was just what he did; and oh, you
should have witnessed his abject humility when I at last had the
acknowledged right to put him out of my house!

"Up to the time the divorce was obtained, he kept possession of the room
he had first taken, on the lower floor, and which I hired an Indian
woman to take care of as one of the chore