FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   >>  
ere becoming acute enough to understand women's ways. In another minute I was walking rapidly home. When I came to the door it was locked. I knocked and knocked and no one came. I called out and threatened to kick in the door. Still no one came. Mad with rage I commenced to put my threat into execution, when the door was opened by Miss T., half-naked, in her petticoats, and pale as death, but no longer defiant. "So I've caught you, have I?" I _looked_, but could not trust myself to speak. Wondering why A. did not appear I went into the bedroom. She was lying on the bed, just as Miss T. had left her, on the verge of a fit, and on seeing me she held out her hands piteously, and when I stooped over her she whispered, "Send her away, send her away." Then she became unconscious and going into the next room I ordered Miss T. (who had managed to scramble on her dress) out of the house. I spoke scornfully as if addressing a dog, and she slinked out with a malignant but cowed look I hope never to see on a woman's face again. What they had been doing with their clothes off I do not know; women will rather die than confess. When A. had recovered from her fit she denied that there had been anything between them, and stuck to it doggedly, but with such a forlorn look I had not the heart to prosecute my inquiries. For my part, all the efforts I had been making for so long seemed for a time to be in vain; for some weeks I sank into a sort of satyriasis, and even my anger against Miss T. turned to a prurient curiosity. At the same time I was not always able to adhere to my diet. But both as regards coition and diet I was still fighting, and on the whole successfully. My fits of temper, however, were excessive and my ennui became gloomy despair. One day I blasphemed on crossing the Park and spoke contemptuously of "God and his twopenny ha'penny revolving balls," referring to the planetary system. But for long walks I should have gone mad. A. was drinking in the intervals of her fits. I found half-empty bottles of wine hidden away. This did not improve my temper, and one day--this was when she was well and up--I struck her a heavy blow on the face, and she aimed a glass decanter at me. She went home to her mother and I lived alone in the cottage. I heard soon afterwards that her husband had
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   >>  



Top keywords:

temper

 

knocked

 
turned
 

prurient

 

curiosity

 

fighting

 
coition
 
adhere
 

mother

 

satyriasis


inquiries
 
efforts
 
prosecute
 

doggedly

 

forlorn

 

husband

 
making
 

cottage

 

decanter

 

revolving


hidden

 

improve

 

twopenny

 

referring

 

planetary

 

bottles

 

drinking

 

intervals

 

system

 

contemptuously


excessive

 

gloomy

 

successfully

 

despair

 

crossing

 
blasphemed
 
struck
 

caught

 

looked

 

defiant


petticoats
 
longer
 

bedroom

 

Wondering

 

minute

 

walking

 
rapidly
 

understand

 
locked
 

called