Excepting breakfast, he seldom took a
meal with her. The easy good-nature which in the beginning made him
an indulgent husband had turned in other directions since his
marriage was grown a weariness to him. He did not, in truth, spend
much upon himself, but in his leisure time was always surrounded by
companions whom he had a pleasure in treating with the generosity of
the public-house. A word of flattery was always sure of payment if
Bob had a coin in his pocket. Ever hungry for admiration, for
prominence, he found new opportunities of gratifying his taste now
that he had a resource when his wages ran out. So far from becoming
freer-handed again with his wife and children, he grudged every coin
that he was obliged to expend on them. Pennyloaf's submissiveness
encouraged him in this habit; where other wives would have 'made a
row,' she yielded at once to his grumbling and made shift with the
paltriest allowance. You should have seen the kind of diet on which
she habitually lived. Like all the women of her class, utterly
ignorant and helpless in the matter of preparing food, she abandoned
the attempt to cook anything, and expended her few pence daily on
whatever happened to tempt her in a shop, when meal-time came round.
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