, he will be celebrated for his generosity and
forbearance. Such is the respect paid to the master-key of property! A
woman, on the contrary, resigning what is termed her natural protector
(though he never was so, but in name) is despised and shunned, for
asserting the independence of mind distinctive of a rational being, and
spurning at slavery.'

"During the remainder of the evening, my uncle's tenderness led him
frequently to revert to the subject, and utter, with increasing warmth,
sentiments to the same purport. At length it was necessary to say
'Farewell!'--and we parted--gracious God! to meet no more."

CHAPTER 11

"A GENTLEMAN of large fortune and of polished manners, had lately
visited very frequently at our house, and treated me, if possible,
with more respect than Mr. Venables paid him; my pregnancy was not yet
visible, his society was a great relief to me, as I had for some time
past, to avoid expence, confined myself very much at home. I ever
disdained unnecessary, perhaps even prudent concealments; and my
husband, with great ease, discovered the amount of my uncle's parting
present. A copy of a writ was the stale pretext to extort it from me;
and I had soon reason to believe that it was fabricated for the purpose.
I acknowledge my folly in thus suffering myself to be continually
imposed on. I had adhered to my resolution not to apply to my uncle,
on the part of my husband, any more; yet, when I had received a sum
sufficient to supply my own wants, and to enable me to pursue a plan I
had in view, to settle my younger brother in a respectable employment,
I allowed myself to be duped by Mr. Venables' shallow pretences, and
hypocritical professions.

"Thus did he pillage me and my family, thus frustrate all my plans of
usefulness. Yet this was the man I was bound to respect and esteem: as
if respect and esteem depended on an arbitrary will of our own! But a
wife being as much a man's property as his horse, or his ass, she has
nothing she can call her own. He may use any means to get at what the
law considers as his, the moment his wife is in possession of it, even
to the forcing of a lock, as Mr. Venables did, to search for notes in
my writing-desk--and all this is done with a show of equity, because,
forsooth, he is responsible for her maintenance.

"The tender mother cannot _lawfully_ snatch from the gripe of the
gambling spendthrift, or beastly drunkard, unmindful of his offspring,
the fortu