nterrupt her by a question. He saw that, for some reason of her
own, she was willing to tell her story.

'I soon found out my mistake when Mat brought me to London. From the
first we were unfortunate; we had neither of us any experience. Our
first landlady cheated us, and our lodgings were far too expensive for
our means--my money had not then come to me. At my mother's death I was
more independent.

'I might have grown fonder of Mat but for one thing. Very shortly after
our marriage--indeed, before the honeymoon was over--I discovered that
he had already stooped to deceit. He had always led me to imagine that
his people were well-to-do, and that his parentage was as respectable as
mine; indeed, I understood that his only brother was a merchant, with
considerable means at his disposal. I do not say Mat told me all this in
words, but he had a way with him of implying things.

'I was very proud--ridiculously proud, if you will--and I had a horror
of trade. You may judge, then, the shock it was to me when I found out
by the merest accident--from reading a fragment of a letter--that this
brother was a corn-chandler in a small retail way.

'We had our first quarrel then. Mat was very cowed and miserable when he
saw how I took it; he wanted to coax me into forgiving his deceit.

'"I knew what a proud little creature you were, Olive," he said, trying
to extenuate his shabby conduct, "and that there was no chance of your
listening to me if you found out Tom was a tradesman. What does it
matter about the shop? Tom is as good a chap as ever breathed, and Susan
is the best-hearted woman in the world." But I would not be conciliated.

'I would not go near his people, and when he mentioned their names I
always turned a deaf ear. It is a bad thing when a woman learns to
despise her husband; but from that day I took Mat's true measure, and my
heart seemed to harden against him. Perhaps I did not go the right way
to improve him or keep him straight, but I soon found out that I dared
not rely on him.

'I think I should have left him before the year was out, only my baby
was born and took all my thoughts; and Mat was so good to me, that for
very shame I dare not hint at such a thing. But we were not happy. His
very fondness made things worse, for he was always reproaching me for my
coldness.

'"You are the worst wife that a man could have," he would say to me.
"You would not care if I were brought home dead any day, and yet if th