The
Money Was Now Provided Out Of "Our Business." This State Of
Things Continued Without Any Change, Except That Process
Of
degeneration which continued in him, until the child was about
four years old, when all at once one day
He told her they were
not doing as well as they might. She was giving far too much
of her time and attention to domestic matters - to the child
especially. Business was business - a thing it was hard for a
woman to understand - and it was impossible for her to give her
mind properly to it with her thoughts occupied with the child.
It couldn't be done. Let the child be put away, he said, and
the receipts would probably be doubled. He had been making
inquiries and found that for a modest annual payment the boy
could be taken proper care of at a distance by good decent
people he had heard of.
She had never suspected such a thought in his mind, and this
proposal had the effect of a stunning blow. She answered not
one word: he said his say and went out, and she knew she would
not see him again for many hours, perhaps not for some days;
she knew, too, that he would say no more to her on the
subject, that it would all be arranged about the child with or
without her consent. His will was law, her wishes nothing.
For she was his wife and humble obedient slave; never had she
pleaded with or admonished him and never complained, even
when, after her long day of hard work, he came in at ten or
eleven o'clock at night with several of his pals, all excited
with drink and noisy as himself, to call for supper.
Nevertheless she had been happy - intensely happy, because of
the child.
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