FullReads

He ate, slept, and went for walks. If he happened to enter the barn or the stables, he was sure to be in the way and be scolded by his wife.

One day, when he had grumbled more than usual, while the children had been running about, neglected by the nurse, she said:

“Why don’t you look after the children? That would give you something to do.”

He stared at her. Did she really mean it?

“Well, why shouldn’t he look after the children? Was there anything strange in her suggestion?”

He thought the matter over and found nothing strange in it. Henceforth he took the children for a walk every day.

One morning, when he was ready to go out, the children were not dressed. The lawyer felt angry and went grumbling to his wife; of the servants he was afraid.

“Why aren’t the children dressed?” he asked.

“Because Mary is busy with other things. Why don’t you dress them? You’ve nothing else to do. Do you consider it degrading to dress your own children?”

He considered the matter for a while, but could see nothing degrading in it. He dressed them.

One day he felt inclined to take his gun and go out by himself, although he never shot anything.

His wife met him on his return.

“Why didn’t you take the children for a walk this morning?” she asked sharply and reproachfully.

“Because I didn’t feel inclined to do so.” “You didn’t feel inclined? Do you think I want to work all day long in stable and barn? One ought to do something useful during the day, even if it does go against one’s inclination.”

“So as to pay for one’s dinner, you mean?”

“If you like to put it that way! If I were a big man like you, I should be ashamed to be lying all day long on a sofa, doing nothing.”

He really felt ashamed, and henceforth he established himself the children’s nurse. He never failed in his duties. He saw no disgrace in it, yet he was unhappy. Something was wrong, somewhere, he thought, but his wife always managed to carry her point.

She sat in the office and interviewed inspector and overseer; she stood in the store-room and weighed out stores for the cottagers. Everybody who came on the estate asked for the mistress, nobody ever wanted to see the master.

One day he took the children past a field in which cattle were grazing. He wanted to show them the cows and cautiously took them up to the grazing herd. All at once a black head, raised above the backs of the other animals, stared at the visitors, bellowing softly.

The lawyer picked up the children and ran back to the fence as hard as he could. He threw them over and tried to jump it himself, but was caught on the top. Noticing some women on the other side, he shouted:

“The bull! the bull!”

But the women merely laughed, and went to pull the children, whose clothes were covered with mud, out of the ditch.

“Don’t you see the bull?” he screamed.

“It’s no bull, sir,” replied the eldest of the women, “the bull was killed a fortnight ago.”

He came home, angry and ashamed and complained of the women to his wife. But she only laughed.

In the afternoon, as husband and wife were together in the drawing-room, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in!” she called out.

One of the women who had witnessed the adventure with the bull came in, holding in her hand the lawyer’s gold chain.

“I believe this belongs to you, M’m,” she said hesitatingly.

Adeline looked first at the woman and then at her husband, who stared at the chain with wide-open eyes.

“No, it belongs to your master,” she said, taking the proffered chain. “Thank you! Your master will give you something for finding it.”

He was sitting there, pale and motionless.

“I have no money, ask my wife to give you something,” he said, taking the necklet.

Adeline took a crown out of her big purse and handed it to the woman, who went away, apparently without understanding the scene.