"I think it must be infinitely worse for a woman to be tied for life to a thoroughly bad husband."
"My dear Agatha! You will end by representing Dr. Darkham as a modern Bluebeard. As for me, I pity him. And there are so many cases just like his. A young man of his parentage—nobody at all, in facts—starts in life, very naturally, by marrying somebody in his own class. Some dreadful person! Then he, being clever—a man—rises. She stands rootedly still. She is a millstone round his neck, weighing him down, keeping him back from the goal to which he would attain—the goal of equality with his superiors which he feels ought to be his, because of the intellect that ennobles him. Now we all know Mrs. Darkham. No wonder he hates her."
"For all that, if a man marries a woman of his own free-will he should deal fairly by her," said Agatha thoughtfully.
"Of course. But there are always exceptional cases. And surely Mrs. Darkham is one of them."
"I don't think so. She is very vulgar, and very fat, and unutterably dull; but one must remember that she was all that when he married her. What, then, does he look for now?"
"Perhaps for the 'h's' she is always dropping," said Mrs. Greatorex, with a laugh. "You say she never goes anywhere, that he keeps her in durance vile; but she is going to this dance to-morrow night at the Firs-Robinsons', and I saw her yesterday at the Poynters'. What is it about her that jars so dreadfully? She started the subject of that idiot son of hers, and wore it to tatters, whilst we all sat aghast, and wished ourselves dead. I was quite thankful Dr. Darkham wasn't there. I really think if he had been, he would have been quite justified in murdering her."
"Oh no!" The words seemed to fall from Agatha unconsciously. There was horror in them—she shuddered. "Aunt Hilda, how dreadful! To murder her!"
Mrs. Greatorex laid down her knitting.
"It wasn't so much that she was vulgar—had bad taste—but that she was so—so oppressive. And rude, too—very rude."
"I could fancy," said the girl slowly, "that she is very unhappy. I have often thought it."