abeth shielded herself as best she could from her
mother's prattlings, but had to endure many tearful complaints, for her
mother was suffering much loneliness and discomfort since her daughter's
marriage. Josiah Farnshaw did not forget, nor let his wife forget, the
disaffection of Elizabeth.

Once when Mrs. Farnshaw had gone beyond the mark where her daughter could
receive it in silence, urging that Elizabeth call her husband home and
submit herself to the matrimonial yoke, the girl turned upon her in
annoyance:

"You'd have me just where you are yourself, ma. You say pa mistreats
you--that's just what was coming to me. If I didn't have money enough that
was all my own to live on, my husband would be sneering at me and keeping
me in hot water all the time, exactly as pa sneers at you."

"But you're separated!" Mrs. Farnshaw cried.

"Yes," the girl said slowly, "and because we are separated I can go to
town if I like, I can go to church, I can go to see a neighbour, or my
mother, without hating to ask for a horse to drive or being told when to
come home, and when Jack is naughty I can talk to him without having
anybody set his little will against mine and make it harder to deal with
him. Oh, mother mine! Can't you see that I'm happier than you are?"

"But, you're livin' apart and--and folks is a talkin'!" the mother
exclaimed hopelessly.

"Let them talk. Their talk don't hurt me, and it shouldn't hurt you. They
don't talk before me."

"But they talk behind your back, Lizzie," Mrs. Farnshaw said with a wise
nod of the head.

"They talked about us when John was here, ma, and they always talk about
us; it doesn't matter much what they talk about; they wouldn't pay off the
mortgage, nor the interest, nor raise Jack right, nor give me a chance to
rest on washday. Some will say I was in the wrong, some that John was, and
they all said that I was stuck-up and wouldn't visit with them when it
wasn't so at all. They are looking to see _who_ was wrong; I have reasoned
out _what_ was wrong. It's principles, not personalities, that get people
into troubles that don't seem to have any way out. Oh! can't you see, ma,
that I'm free, and the women that talk about me are just where they've
always been. Free! and don't forget that I'm out of debt. That's more than
you've got by staying with your husband, and you haven't been able to keep
people from talking after all. Free, and out of debt! Don't forget it."

"Well, you wouldn't