here
that would take me away from him, I would have left him a year ago;"
and her bright eyes snapped as though she meant all she said.

"How long have you been married?"

"Two years; and I was very foolish to have him. Griffin is a bad man,"
said she, shaking her head. "He was discharged from the Charleston
steamer for getting up a fight, and drawing a knife on the steward. He
beats me and abuses me, and I have been miserable ever since I married
him. I have often been afraid of my life, he is so violent, especially
when he has been drinking."

"Does he drink hard?"

"Only when he is ashore. If he did it on board any steamer, they would
discharge him right off. When this trip in the Sylvania is done, I
shall have a little money, and then I shall leave Florida by the first
train, if the ladies will give me a recommendation so that I can get a
place. I mean to change my name, and keep out of Griffin's way as long
as I live, for he will kill me if I live with him. I had no comfort for
a year till I came on board of this vessel."

"You were living in St. Augustine, were you?"

"Lived everywhere; we had been in St. Augustine two months when we
engaged on this steamer. Griffin had a place at a hotel, and was turned
off for getting drunk, and fighting. He must have been very bad, or
they would not have let him go when they were so short of waiters. He
wouldn't let me work anywhere, though I had plenty of chances to wait
on table, and one to go in the San Jacinto to Nassau. He was afraid I
should get some money and leave him, as I told him I would after he had
whipped and kicked me. I have a mark on my shoulder where he bit me,
not a week before we came on board of this vessel."

My sympathies were greatly excited; but in a quarrel between man and
wife, I had heard older people say no one should interfere unless they
came to blows, and I said nothing.

"Griffin sailed in some vessel with Mr. Cornwood, I believe," I added.

"Never in this world!" protested Chloe. "He was born and raised in
Fernandina, as I was; and I can tell where he was every hour of his
life, up to our marriage. He was on the same steamer with me three
years, and both of us were at home up to that time."

"Why did you marry him if you knew him so well?" I asked, much
interested in her story.

"Because I was foolish, and thought I could manage him. Perhaps I
could, if he didn't drink no liquor."

"I was not aware that he was a drinking man."