“Yes, we are at times the recipients of many a domestic drama or tragedy.”
“And did Mrs. Forrester ever make known to her husband the history of her first unfortunate marriage?”
“I believe not. Certainly not that I am aware of. It was a matter I did not choose to interfere in beyond giving her a word or so of advice. No man has a right to interfere between husband and wife, you know.”
“He was a base scoundrel,” observed Quirp, “and for such men we should have no pity; one hardly knows what punishment such a fellow deserves.”
“Solitary confinement,” cried Major Smythe. “That’s the way to bring a fellow to his senses. If that doesn’t succeed nothing will.”
“Well, you see,” remarked Quirp, “solitary confinement is so terrible that it cannot be resorted to with safety; after a time it has been found to drive prisoners mad.”
“Drive them mad—eh?”
“Dear me, yes. Didn’t you know that? It is the most fearful of all punishments, and has been tried in the penal prisons of this country and elsewhere. I will give you an account of a prison I visited while this punishment was in operation.
“The prison I am about to speak of was in Philadelphia, to which city an important will case once necessitated my paying a visit. Let me premise here that the solitary system was, at that time at least, practised in American prisons with far more rigour than in English gaols, and sometimes lasted a lifetime, or ended in the madness of the prisoner.”