don't care about such things, and he knows it."

After this, Mrs. Ellis fell into a state of deep and gloomy
abstraction of mind. Many images of the past came up to view, and,
among them, some that it was by no means pleasant to look upon. This
was not the first time that her husband had gone off in a pet; but
in no instance had he come home with a mind as clear as when he left
her. A deep sigh heaved the wife's bosom as she remembered this;
and, for some moments, she suffered from keen self-reproaches. But,
an accusing spirit quickly obliterated this impression. In her heart
she wrote many bitter things against her husband, and magnified
habits and peculiarities into serious faults.

Poor, unhappy wife! How little did she comprehend the fact that her
husband's feet were near the brink of a precipice, and that a
fearful abyss of ruin was below; else would she have drawn him
lovingly back, instead of driving him onward to destruction.






CHAPTER V.





ELLIS, excited and angry, not only left his wife's presence, but the