Besides, you know, I don't think it would be right of
me to really pit my will against his."
"Poor little you!--Oh! men are queer fish, Mary, aren't they? Not that
I can complain; I drew a prize in the lucky-bag when I took that old
Jawkins in there. But when I look round me, or think back, and see what
we women put up with! There was poor old ma; she 'ad to be man for both.
And Jinn, Mary, who didn't dare to call 'er soul 'er own. And milady
Agnes is travelling the selfsame road--why, she 'as to cock 'er eye at
Henry nowadays before she trusts 'erself to say whether it's beef or
mutton she's eating! And now 'ere's you, love, carted off with never a
with-your-leave or by-your-leave, just because the doctor's tired of it
and thinks 'e'd like a change. There's no question of whether you're
tired or not--oh, my, no!"
"But he has to earn the money, Tilly. It isn't quite fair to put it that
way," protested her friend.
"Well! I don't know, Mary, I'm sure," and Tilly's plump person rose and
sank in a prodigious sigh. "But if I was 'is wife 'e wouldn't get off so
easy--I know that! It makes me just boil."
Mary answered with a rueful smile. She could never be angry with Richard
in cold blood, or for long together.
As time went on, though, and the break-up of her home began--by the
auctioneer's man appearing to paw over and appraise the furniture--a
certain dull resentment did sometimes come uppermost. Under its sway she
had forcibly to remind herself what a good husband Richard had always
been; had to tell off his qualities one by one, instead of taking them
as hitherto for granted.
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