Thus thinking as I passed onward, I reached a railway arch, under which my road lay. There I witnessed a scene of a very different character. A much younger couple than those I had lately noticed were standing beneath the arch; the man steadying himself against the wall as well as he could; while the woman, in a perfect fury of passion, was heaping reproaches and abuse upon his head.
She taunted him with her rags and dirt, with his barefooted children running wild in the streets and not half fed, whilst he, worse than a brute, was setting in a public-house. She was so bitter in her words, so quick-witted and sharp in her taunts, that they stung him, heavy as was his head, and muddled as were his senses. He replied by an oath and an expression which was full of hate and contempt towards herself, vowing, in addition, that he would spend every farthing he had left of his wages, and she might get money where she could; though he had meant to give it to her.
Stung to fury at this, she seized his arm, as If to drag him homeward, but she only succeeded in throwing him down on the ground. The man with difficulty regained his feet, and his first act was to aim a blow at the face of his wife which would be heavy enough to leave cruel marks there; his next to reel forward and enter the nearest public-house, which was just outside the arch.
There were several witnesses to this miserable scene, this picture all black, and without any gleam of light to relieve it. The woman's shrill taunts had called more from the adjoining street; for her idea seemed to be, not to cover, but to expose her husband's transgression to the very utmost.
Now she went on her homeward way alone, weeping, disfigured, hopeless, and surely we may suppose self-accusing, if conscience were not altogether deadened within her.
I suppose my face told something of the sorrowful feelings which this scene had stirred within me; for a decent-looking woman, who evidently knew the unhappy couple, said to me, "Isn't it a pity she can't hold her tongue a bit, not even till she gets him home and the door shut behind him? But it has always been the same!"
"You know this couple, then?"
"Yes, ever since they were boy and girl; when they were first wed, he would only get a little drop of drink now and then; but when he did, she would make such an outcry, scolding and going on like anybody mad, that if he had come home meaning to stop, it was pretty sure to drive him out again. I think she might have done a good deal to improve him if she'd only had a bit of patience. But, poor lass! She never could hold that sharp tongue of hers. So they have gone on from bad to worse, and no signs of mending. She has made herself a lumpy bed; but as she has made it, so she'll have to lie."
The speaker then bade me good-afternoon, and went on her way. I went on mine also, musing sorrowfully on the last picture I had witnessed, and calling to mind that other lesson from God's Word:
"A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger."