She kept her promise, however, and ordered a bed to be made ready for her in another room. Mr. Munden came not home that night till very late; and being told what his wife had done, took not the least notice of it; but happening to meet her the next morning, as she was coming down stairs, 'So, Madam,' said he, 'I suppose you fancy this obstinate disobedience to your husband is mighty becoming in you!'
'When a husband,' answered she, 'is ignorant of the regard he ought to have for his wife, or forgets to put it in practice, he can expect neither affection nor obedience, unless the woman he has married happens to be an idiot.'
They passed each other with these words; and she went directly to Lady Trusty, being impatient to acquaint her with the behaviour of her husband towards her since she last had seen her.
This worthy lady was astonished beyond measure at the recital; it seemed so strange to her, that a gentleman of Mr. Munden's birth, fortune, and education, should ever entertain the sordid design of obliging his wife to convert to the family uses what had been settled on her for her own private expences, that she could not have given credit to it from any other mouth than that of the weeping sufferer: his killing of the squirrel also, though a trifle in itself, she could not help thinking denoted a most cruel, revengeful, and mean mind.
But how much soever she condemned him in her heart, she forebore expressing the whole of her sentiments on this occasion to his wife, being willing, as they were joined to each other by the most sacred and indissoluble bonds, rather to heal, if possible, the breach between them, than to add any thing which might serve to widen it.
She told her that, though she could not but confess that Mr. Munden had behaved towards her, through this whole affair, in a manner very different from what he ought to have done, or what might have been expected from him, yet she was sorry to find that she had carried things to that extremity; particularly she blamed her for having quitted his bed: 'Because,' said she, 'it may furnish him with some matter of complaint against you; and, likewise, make others suspect you have not that affection for him which is the duty of a wife.'
Mrs. Munden making no answer to this, and looking a little perplexed—'I do not mean, by what I have said,' resumed Lady Trusty, 'to persuade you to take any steps towards a reconciliation; that is, I would not have you confess you have been in the wrong, or tell him you are sorry for what you have done: that would be taking a blame upon yourself you do not deserve; and he would imagine he had a right to expect the same on every trifling occasion. It may be, he might be imperious and ill-natured enough to create quarrels merely for the sake of humbling your spirit and resentment into submission.
'But as to live in the manner you are likely to do together,' continued she, 'cannot but be very displeasing in the eye of Heaven, and must also expose both of you to the censure and contempt of the world, when once it comes to be known and talked of, some means must be speedily found to bring about an accommodation between you.'
'O, Madam!' cried the other, hastily interrupting her, 'how impossible is it for me ever to look with any thing but disdain and resentment on a man who, after so many protestations of eternal love, eternal adoration, has dared to treat me in this manner! No!' added she, with greater vehemence than before, 'I despise the low, the grovelling mind; light and darkness are not more opposites than we are, and can as easily agree.'
'You must not think, nor talk in this fashion,' said the good lady; 'all you can accuse him of will not amount to a separation; besides, consider how odd a figure a woman makes who lives apart from her husband; there is an absolute necessity for a reconciliation; and, as it is probable that neither of you will pursue any measures for that purpose, it is highly proper your friends should take upon them to interpose in the affair.'