least love for his wife could do it.

"And I suppose this is to be the case every Saturday? But I know
what I'll do. I know--it's no use, Mr. Caudle, your calling me a
good creature: I'm not such a fool as to be coaxed in that way. No;
if you want to go to sleep, you should come home in Christian time,
not at half-past twelve. There was a time, when you were as regular
at your fireside as the kettle. That was when you were a decent man,
and didn't go amongst Heaven knows who, drinking and smoking, and
making what you think your jokes. I never heard any good come to a
man who cared about jokes. No respectable tradesman does. But I
know what I'll do: I'll scare away your Skylarks. The house serves
liquor after twelve of a Saturday; and if I don't write to the
magistrates, and have the licence taken away, I'm not lying in this
bed this night. Yes, you may call me a foolish woman; but no, Mr.
Caudle, no; it's you who are the foolish man; or worse than a foolish
man; you're a wicked one. If you were to die to-morrow--and people
who go to public-houses do all they can to shorten their lives--I
should like to know who would write upon your tombstone, 'A tender
husband and an affectionate father'? _I_--I'd have no such
falsehoods told of you, I can assure you.

"Going and spending your money, and--nonsense! don't tell me--no, if
you were ten times to swear it, I wouldn't believe that you only
spent eighteenpence on a Saturday. You can't be all those hours and
only spend eighteenpence. I know better. I'm not quite a fool, Mr.
Caudle. A great deal you could have for eighteenpence! And all the
Club married men and fathers of families. The more shame for 'em!
Skylarks, indeed! They should call themselves Vultures; for they can
only do as they do by eating up their innocent wives and children.