y one for whom she had
a regard, but there was a firm spirit within her that rose at the
slightest show of injustice or oppression, and that resented tyrannical
usage of any sort perhaps a little too warmly. The bare suspicion that
her husband could feel any distrust of her set her all in a flame,
and she took the most unfortunate, and yet, at the same time, the most
natural way for a woman, of resenting it. The ruder her husband was
to Mr. Meeke the more kindly she behaved to him. This led to serious
disputes and dissensions, and thence, in time, to a violent quarrel. I
could not avoid hearing the last part of the altercation between them,
for it took place in the garden-walk, outside the dining-room window,
while I was occupied in laying the table for lunch.

Without repeating their words--which I have no right to do, having heard
by accident what I had no business to hear--I may say generally, to show
how serious the quarrel was, that my mistress charged my master with
having married from mercenary motives, with keeping out of her company
as much as he could, and with insulting her by a suspicion which it
would be hard ever to forgive, and impossible ever to forget. He replied
by violent language directed against herself, and by commanding her
never to open the doors again to Mr. Meeke; she, on her side, declaring
that she would never consent to insult a clergyman and a gentleman in
order to satisfy the whim of a tyrannical husband. Upon that, he called
out, with a great oath, to have his horse saddled directly, declaring
that he would not stop another instant under the same roof with a woman
who had set him at defiance, and warning his wife that he would come
back, if Mr. Meeke entered the house again, and horsewhip him, in spite
of his black coat, all through the village.

With those words he left her, and rode away to the sea-port where his
yacht was lying. My mistress kept up her spirit till he was out of
sight, and then burst into a dreadful screaming passion of tears, which
ended by leaving her so weak that she had to be carried to her bed like
a woman who was at the point of death.

The same evening my master's horse was ridden back by a messenger, who
brought a scrap of notepaper with him addressed to me. It only contained
these lines:

"Pack up my clothes and deliver them immediately to the bearer. You may
tell your mistress that I sail to-night at eleven o'clock for a cruise
to Sweden. Forward my letter