you went out, and read till you came home again. The strangest story, Jonas! And true, the book says. I 'll tell it you to-morrow."
"True, was it?" said Jonas, doggedly.
"So the book says."
"Was there anything In it, about a man's being determined to conquer his wife, break her spirit, bend her temper, crush all her humours like so many nutshells—kill her, for aught I know?" said Jonas.
"No. Not a word," she answered quickly.
"Ah!" he returned. "That 'll be a true story though, before long; for all the book says nothing about it. It's a lying book, I see. A fit book for a lying reader. But you 're deaf. I forgot that."
There was another interval of silence; and the boy was stealing away, when he heard her footstep on the floor, and stopped. She went up to him, as it seemed, and spoke lovingly: saying that she would defer to him in everything, and would consult his wishes and obey them, and they might be very happy if he would be gentle with her. He answered with an imprecation, and—
Not with a blow? Yes. Stern truth against the base-souled villain: with a blow.
No angry cries; no loud reproaches. Even her weeping and her sobs were stifled by her clinging round him. She only said, repeating it in agony of heart. How could he, could he, could he—and lost utterance in tears.
Oh woman, God beloved in old Jerusalem! The best among us need deal lightly with thy faults, if only for the punishment thy nature will endure, in bearing heavy evidence against us, on the Day of Judgment!
CHAPTER XXIX.
IN WHICH SOME PEOPLE ARE PRECOCIOUS, OTHERS PROFESSIONAL, AND OTHERS MYSTERIOUS: ALL IN THEIR SEVERAL WAYS.
It may have been the restless remembrance of what he had seen and heard over-night, or it may have been no deeper mental operation than the discovery that he had nothing to do, which caused Mr. Bailey, on the following afternoon, to feel particularly disposed for agreeable society, and prompted him to pay a visit to his friend Poll Sweedlepipe.
On the little bell giving clamorous notice of a visitor's approach (for Mr. Bailey came in at the door with a lunge, to get as much sound out of the bell as possible). Poll Sweedlepipe desisted from the contemplation of a favourite owl, and gave his young friend hearty welcome.
"Why, you look smarter by day," said Poll, "than you do by candle-light. I never see such a tight young dasher."
"Reether so, Polly. How's our fair friend Sairah?"
"Oh, she's pretty well," said Poll. "She's at home."
"There's the remains of a fine woman about Sairah, Poll," observed Mr. Bailey, with genteel indifference.
"Oh!" thought Poll, "he's old. He must be very old!"
"Too much crumb, you know," said Mr. Bailey; "too fat. Poll. But there's many worse at her time of life."
