"That's nothing to do with it; but of course you'll take his part.
Poor women! A nice time they had with him, I dare say! And I've no
doubt, Mr. Caudle, you'd like to follow Mr. Milton's example; else
you wouldn't read the stuff he wrote. But you don't use me as he
treated the poor souls who married him. Poets, indeed! I'd make a
law against any of 'em having wives, except upon paper; for goodness
help the dear creatures tied to them! Like innocent moths lured by a
candle! Talking of candles, you don't know that the lamp in the
passage is split to bits! I say you don't--do you hear me, Mr.
Caudle? Won't you answer? Do you know where you are? What?

"IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN?

"Are you? Then you've no business there at this time of night."


"And saying this," writes Caudle, "she scrambled from the bed and put
out the night."



LECTURE XXIX--MRS. CAUDLE THINKS "THE TIME HAS COME TO HAVE A COTTAGE
OUT OF TOWN"



"Oh, Caudle, you ought to have had something nice to-night; for
you're not well, love--I know you're not. Ha! that's like you men--
so headstrong! You will have it that nothing ails you; but I can
tell, Caudle. The eye of a wife--and such a wife as I've been to