“You only go once a week?
“That’s nothing at all to do with it: you might as well go every night; and I daresay you will soon. But if you do, you may get in as you can: I won’t sit up for you, I can tell you.
“My health’s being destroyed night after night, and - oh, don’t say it’s only once a week; I tell you that’s nothing to do with it - if you had any eyes, you would see how ill I am; but you’ve no eyes for anybody belonging to you: oh no! your eyes are for people out of doors. It’s very well for you to call me a foolish, aggravating woman! I should like to see the woman who’d sit up for you as I do.
“You didn’t want me to sit up?
“Yes, yes; that’s your thanks - that’s your gratitude: I’m to ruin my health, and to be abused for it. Nice principles you’ve got at that club, Mr. Caudle!
“But there’s one comfort - one great comfort; it can’t last long: I’m sinking - I feel it, though I never say anything about it - but I know my own feelings, and I say it can’t last long. And then I should like to know who will sit up for you! Then I should like to know how your second wife - what do you say?
“You’ll never be troubled with another?
“Troubled, indeed! I never troubled you, Caudle. No; it’s you who’ve troubled me; and you know it; though like a foolish woman I’ve borne it all, and never said a word about it. But it can’t last - that’s one blessing!
“Oh, if a woman could only know what she’d have to suffer before she was married - Don’t tell me you want to go to sleep! If you want to go to sleep, you should come home at proper hours! It’s time to get up, for what I know, now. Shouldn’t wonder if you hear the milk in five minutes - there’s the sparrows up already; yes, I say the sparrows; and, Caudle, you ought to blush to hear ’em.
“You don’t hear ’em?