ould never be made up, still she agreed to
conceal me for the present; yet assuring me at the same time, shaking her
head, that, when a woman was once married, she must bear every thing. Her
pale face, on which appeared a thousand haggard lines and delving
wrinkles, produced by what is emphatically termed fretting, inforced her
remark; and I had afterwards an opportunity of observing the treatment
she had to endure, which grizzled her into patience. She toiled from
morning till night; yet her husband would rob the till, and take away the
money reserved for paying bills; and, returning home drunk, he would
beat her if she chanced to offend him, though she had a child at the
breast.

"These scenes awoke me at night; and, in the morning, I heard her, as
usual, talk to her dear Johnny--he, forsooth, was her master; no slave in
the West Indies had one more despotic; but fortunately she was of the
true Russian breed of wives.

"My mind, during the few past days, seemed, as it were, disengaged from
my body; but, now the struggle was over, I felt very forcibly the effect
which perturbation of spirits produces on a woman in my situation.

"The apprehension of a miscarriage, obliged me to confine myself to my
apartment near a fortnight; but I wrote to my uncle's friend for money,
promising 'to call on him, and explain my situation, when I was well
enough to go out; mean time I earnestly intreated him, not to mention my
place of abode to any one, lest my husband--such the law considered
him--should disturb the mind he could not conquer. I mentioned my
intention of setting out for Lisbon, to claim my uncle's protection, the
moment my health would permit.'

"The tranquillity however, which I was recovering, was soon interrupted.
My landlady came up to me one day, with eyes swollen with weeping, unable
to utter what she was commanded to say. She declared, 'That she was never
so miserable in her life; that she must appear an ungrateful monster; and
that she would readily go down on her knees to me, to intreat me to
forgive her, as she had done to her husband to spare her the cruel task.'
Sobs prevented her from proceeding, or answering my impatient enquiries,
to know what she meant.

"When she became a little more composed, she took a newspaper out of her
pocket, declaring, 'that her heart smote her, but what could she do?--she
must obey her husband.' I snatched the paper from her. An advertisement
quickly met my eye, purporting,