ecent people would have patted
him on the back, and said, 'Quite right, good man--quite right.'

"So there he was by his own act, and with the approval of others, in the
same house with me.

"I made no remark to him or to the landlord. Nothing roused me now.
I knew what was coming; I waited for the end. There was some change
visible in me to others, as I suppose, though not noticeable by myself,
which first surprised my husband and then daunted him. When the next
night came I heard him lock the door softly in his own room. It didn't
matter to me. When the time was ripe ten thousand locks wouldn't lock
out what was to come.

"The next day, bringing my weekly payment, brought me a step nearer on
the way to the end. Getting the money, he could get the drink. This
time he began cunningly--in other words, he began his drinking by slow
degrees. The landlord (bent, honest man, on trying to keep the peace
between us) had given him some odd jobs to do, in the way of small
repairs, here and there about the house. 'You owe this,' he says, 'to
my desire to do a good turn to your poor wife. I am helping you for her
sake. Show yourself worthy to be helped, if you can.'

"He said, as usual, that he was going to turn over a new leaf. Too late!
The time had gone by. He was doomed, and I was doomed. It didn't matter
what he said now. It didn't matter when he locked his door again the
last thing at night.

"The next day was Sunday. Nothing happened. I went to chapel. Mere
habit. It did me no good. He got on a little with the drinking--but
still cunningly, by slow degrees. I knew by experience that this meant a
long fit, and a bad one, to come.

"Monday, there were the odd jobs about the house to be begun. He was
by this time just sober enough to do his work, and just tipsy enough to
take a spiteful pleasure in persecuting his wife. He went out and got
the things he wanted, and came back and called for me. A skilled workman
like he was (he said) wanted a journeyman under him. There were things
which it was beneath a skilled workman to do for himself. He was not
going to call in a man or a boy, and then have to pay them. He was going
to get it done for nothing, and he meant to make a journeyman of _me._
Half tipsy and half sober, he went on talking like that, and laying out
his things, all quite right, as he wanted them. When they were ready he
straightened himself up, and he gave me his orders what I was to do.

"I obeyed him to th