The extract tells all that need be known, for the
purpose I have in view, of the miserable pair to whom it relates.
"You remember Mr. and Mrs. ---? Mrs. --- came here the other day,
with a most melancholy tale of her wretched husband's drunken,
extravagant, profligate habits. She asked Papa's advice; there was
nothing she said but ruin before them. They owed debts which they
could never pay. She expected Mr. ---'s instant dismissal from his
curacy; she knew, from bitter experience, that his vices were utterly
hopeless. He treated her and her child savagely; with much more to
the same effect. Papa advised her to leave him for ever, and go home,
if she had a home to go to. She said, this was what she had long
resolved to do; and she would leave him directly, as soon as Mr. B.
dismissed him. She expressed great disgust and contempt towards him,
and did not affect to have the shadow of regard in any way. I do not
wonder at this, but I do wonder she should ever marry a man towards
whom her feelings must always have been pretty much the same as they
are now. I am morally certain no decent woman could experience
anything but aversion towards such a man as Mr. ---. Before I knew,
or suspected his character, and when I rather wondered at his
versatile talents, I felt it in an uncontrollable degree.
Pages:
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257