________________________________________________
_ About six months after he had set up his shop his prosperity had
reached its climax. It seemed even then as though he were likely to
go ahead no less fast than heretofore, and I doubt not that he would
have done so, if success or non-success had depended upon himself
alone. Unfortunately he was not the only person to be reckoned
with.
One morning he had gone out to attend some sales, leaving his wife
perfectly well, as usual in good spirits, and looking very pretty.
When he came back he found her sitting on a chair in the back
parlour, with her hair over her face, sobbing and crying as though
her heart would break. She said she had been frightened in the
morning by a man who had pretended to be a customer, and had
threatened her unless she gave him some things, and she had had to
give them to him in order to save herself from violence; she had
been in hysterics ever since the man had gone. This was her story,
but her speech was so incoherent that it was not easy to make out
what she said. Ernest knew she was with child, and thinking this
might have something to do with the matter, would have sent for a
doctor if Ellen had not begged him not to do so.
Anyone who had had experience of drunken people would have seen at a
glance what the matter was, but my hero knew nothing about them--
nothing, that is to say, about the drunkenness of the habitual
drunkard, which shows itself very differently from that of one who
gets drunk only once in a way. The idea that his wife could drink
had never even crossed his mind, indeed she always made a fuss about
taking more than a very little beer, and never touched spirits. He
did not know much more about hysterics than he did about
drunkenness, but he had always heard that women who were about to
become mothers were liable to be easily upset and were often rather
flighty, so he was not greatly surprised, and thought he had settled
the matter by registering the discovery that being about to become a
father has its troublesome as well as its pleasant side.
The great change in Ellen's life consequent upon her meeting Ernest
and getting married had for a time actually sobered her by shaking
her out of her old ways. Drunkenness is so much a matter of habit,
and habit so much a matter of surroundings, that if you completely
change the surroundings you will sometimes get rid of the
drunkenness altogether. Ellen had intended remaining always sober
henceforward, and never having had so long a steady fit before,
believed she was now cured. So she perhaps would have been if she
had seen none of her old acquaintances. When, however, her new life
was beginning to lose its newness, and when her old acquaintances
came to see her, her present surroundings became more like her past,
and on this she herself began to get like her past too. At first
she only got a little tipsy and struggled against a relapse; but it
was no use, she soon lost the heart to fight, and now her object was
not to try and keep sober, but to get gin without her husband's
finding it out.
So the hysterics continued, and she managed to make her husband
still think that they were due to her being about to become a
mother. The worse her attacks were, the more devoted he became in
his attention to her. At last he insisted that a doctor should see
her. The doctor of course took in the situation at a glance, but
said nothing to Ernest except in such a guarded way that he did not
understand the hints that were thrown out to him. He was much too
downright and matter of fact to be quick at taking hints of this
sort. He hoped that as soon as his wife's confinement was over she
would regain her health and had no thought save how to spare her as
far as possible till that happy time should come.
In the mornings she was generally better, as long that is to say as
Ernest remained at home; but he had to go out buying, and on his
return would generally find that she had had another attack as soon
as he had left the house. At times she would laugh and cry for half
an hour together, at others she would lie in a semi-comatose state
upon the bed, and when he came back he would find that the shop had
been neglected and all the work of the household left undone. Still
he took it for granted that this was all part of the usual course
when women were going to become mothers, and when Ellen's share of
the work settled down more and more upon his own shoulders he did it
all and drudged away without a murmur. Nevertheless, he began to
feel in a vague way more as he had felt in Ashpit Place, at
Roughborough, or at Battersby, and to lose the buoyancy of spirits
which had made another man of him during the first six months of his
married life
It was not only that he had to do so much household work, for even
the cooking, cleaning up slops, bed-making and fire-lighting ere
long devolved upon him, but his business no longer prospered. He
could buy as hitherto, but Ellen seemed unable to sell as she had
sold at first. The fact was that she sold as well as ever, but kept
back part of the proceeds in order to buy gin, and she did this more
and more till even the unsuspecting Ernest ought to have seen that
she was not telling the truth. When she sold better--that is to say
when she did not think it safe to keep back more than a certain
amount, she got money out of him on the plea that she had a longing
for this or that, and that it would perhaps irreparably damage the
baby if her longing was denied her. All seemed right, reasonable,
and unavoidable, nevertheless Ernest saw that until the confinement
was over he was likely to have a hard time of it. All however would
then come right again. _
Read next: CHAPTER LXXV
Read previous: CHAPTER LXXIII
Table of content of Way of All Flesh
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book
