Worse was to come. Sam occasionally stayed out very late at night,
and on his return alleged a 'business appointment.' Bessie at length
refused to accept these excuses; she couldn't and wouldn't believe
them.
'Then don't!' shouted Sam. 'And understand that I shall come home
just when I like. If you make a bother I won't come home at all, so
there you have it!'
'You're a bad husband and a beast!' was Bessie's retort.
Shortly after that Bessie received information of such grave
misconduct on her husband's part that she all but resolved to
forsake the house, and with the children seek refuge under her
parents' roof at Woolwich. Sam had been seen in indescribable
company; no permissible words would characterise the individuals
with whom he had roamed shamelessly on the pavement of Oxford
Street. When he next met her, quite sober and with exasperatingly
innocent expression, Bessie refused to open her lips. Neither that
evening nor the next would she utter a word to him--and the effort
it cost her was tremendous. The result was, that on the third
evening Sam did not appear.
It was a week after Clem's trial. Jane had been keeping to herself
as much as possible, but, having occasion to go down into the
kitchen late at night, she found Bessie in tears, utterly miserable.
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