ATONEMENT
"You ask me how I lost my foot? You I see that dog?"--an unattractive
beast lying before the fire--"well, when I tell you how I came by him
you will know how I lost it;" and he then related the following story:-
I was in Westmoreland with my wife and children for a holiday and we had
brought our dog with us, for we knew he would be unhappy with the
strangers to whom we had let our house. The weather was very wet and
our lodgings were not comfortable; we were kept indoors for days
together, and my temper, always irritable, became worse. My wife never
resisted me when I was in these moods and the absence of opposition
provoked me all the more. Had she stood up against me and told me I
ought to be ashamed of myself it would have been better for me. One
afternoon everything seemed to go wrong. A score of petty vexations,
not one of which was of any moment, worked me up to desperation. I
threw my book across the room, to the astonishment of my children, and
determined to go out, although it was raining hard.
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