All that I discarded. Underneath all that was a solid worth which I
loved, and which was mostly not vocal. What was vocal in him was, I
am bound to say, not of much value.
About the time when our room opened, Mrs. Cardinal had become almost
insupportable to her husband. Poor woman; I always pitied her; she
was alone sometimes for a fortnight at a stretch; she read nothing;
there was no child to occupy her thoughts; she knew that her husband
lived in a world into which she never entered, and she had nothing to
do but to brood over imaginary infidelities. She was literally
possessed, and who shall be hard upon her? Nobody cared for her;
everybody with whom her husband associated disliked her, and she knew
perfectly well they never asked her to their houses except for his
sake. Cardinal vowed at last he would endure her no longer, and that
they must separate. He was induced one Sunday morning, when his
resolution was strong within him, and he was just about to give
effect to it, to come with us. The quiet seemed to soothe him, and
he went home with me afterwards. He was not slow to disclose to me
his miserable condition, and his resolve to change it. I do not know
now what I said, but it appeared to me that he ought not to change
it, and that change would be for him most perilous.
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