"As far as I can learn," said Mr. Allison, "he has always lived by his
wits; he is a professional gambler now."

"Dreadful! How does he treat his wife?"

"Very badly indeed, if we may credit her story. They live, as the saying
is, like cat and dog, actually coming to blows at times. They are both
bitterly disappointed, each having married the other merely for money;
which neither had."

Mr. Dinsmore looked greatly concerned. "Virginia was never a favorite of
mine," he remarked, "but I do not like to think of her as suffering from
either poverty or the abusive treatment of a bad husband. Can nothing be
done to better her condition?"

"I think not at present," said Adelaide; "she has made her bed and will
have to lie in it. I don't believe the man would ever proceed to personal
violence if she did not exasperate him with taunts and reproaches; with
slaps, scratches, and hair pulling also, he says."

"O disgraceful!" exclaimed her uncle. "I have no pity for her if she is
really guilty of such conduct."

"She told me herself that on one occasion she actually threw a cup of
coffee in his face in return for his accusation that she and her mother
had inveigled him into the marriage by pretences to wealth they did not
possess. Poor Louise! I have no doubt her attack was brought on by the
discovery of the great mistake she and Virginia had made, and reproaches
heaped on her for her share in making the match."