ance what the matter was, but my hero knew nothing about them--nothing,
that is to say, about the drunkenness of the habitual drunkard, which
shows itself very differently from that of one who gets drunk only once
in a way. The idea that his wife could drink had never even crossed his
mind, indeed she always made a fuss about taking more than a very little
beer, and never touched spirits. He did not know much more about
hysterics than he did about drunkenness, but he had always heard that
women who were about to become mothers were liable to be easily upset and
were often rather flighty, so he was not greatly surprised, and thought
he had settled the matter by registering the discovery that being about
to become a father has its troublesome as well as its pleasant side.

The great change in Ellen's life consequent upon her meeting Ernest and
getting married had for a time actually sobered her by shaking her out of
her old ways. Drunkenness is so much a matter of habit, and habit so
much a matter of surroundings, that if you completely change the
surroundings you will sometimes get rid of the drunkenness altogether.
Ellen had intended remaining always sober henceforward, and never having
had so long a steady fit before, believed she was now cured. So she
perhaps would have been if she had seen none of her old acquaintances.
When, however, her new life was beginning to lose its newness, and when
her old acquaintances came to see her, her present surroundings became
more like her past, and on this she herself began to get like her past
too. At first she only got a little tipsy and struggled against a
relapse; but it was no use, she soon lost the heart to fight, and now her
object was not to try and keep sober, but to get gin without her
husband's finding it out.

So the hysterics continued, and she managed to make her husband still
think that they were due to her being about to become a mother. The
worse her attacks were, the more devoted he became in his attention to
her. At last he insisted that a doctor should see her. The doctor of
course took in the situation at a glance, but said nothing to Ernest
except in such a guarded way that he did not understand the hints that
were thrown out to him. He was much too downright and matter of fact to
be quick at taking hints of this sort. He hoped that as soon as his
wife's confinement was over she would regain her health and had no
thought save how to spare her as far