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why I knew I could come to you.’
‘Tell me what’s happened.’
‘Oh, I can’t, I can’t,’ she cried out, breaking away from
him.
He sank down on his knees beside her and put his cheek
against hers.
‘Don’t you know that there’s nothing you can’t tell me? I
can never blame you for anything.’
She told him the story little by little, and sometimes she
sobbed so much that he could hardly understand.
‘Last Monday week he went up to Birmingham, and he
promised to be back on Thursday, and he never came, and
he didn’t come on the Friday, so I wrote to ask what was the
matter, and he never answered the letter. And I wrote and
said that if I didn’t hear from him by return I’d go up to Bir-
mingham, and this morning I got a solicitor’s letter to say
I had no claim on him, and if I molested him he’d seek the
protection of the law.’
‘But it’s absurd,’ cried Philip. ‘A man can’t treat his wife
like that. Had you had a row?’
‘Oh, yes, we’d had a quarrel on the Sunday, and he said
he was sick of me, but he’d said it before, and he’d come
back all right. I didn’t think he meant it. He was frightened,
because I told him a baby was coming. I kept it from him
as long as I could. Then I had to tell him. He said it was my
fault, and I ought to have known better. If you’d only heard
the things he said to me! But I found out precious quick
that he wasn’t a gentleman. He left me without a penny. He
hadn’t paid the rent, and I hadn’t got the money to pay it,