Here was an undeniable fact before Hitty Dimock, one she could no way
evade or gloss over; no gradual lesson, no shadow of foreboding,
preluded the revelation; her husband was unmistakably, savagely drunk.
She did not sit down and cry;--drearily she gathered her baby in her
arms, hushed it to sleep with kisses, passed down into the kitchen, woke
up the brands of the ash-hidden fire to a flame, laid on more wood, and,
dragging old Keery's rush-bottomed chair in front of the blaze, held her
baby in her arms till morning broke, careless of anything without or
within but her child's sleep and her husband's drunkenness. Long and
sadly in that desolate night did she revolve this new misery in her
mind; the fact was face to face, and must be provided for,--but how to
do it? What could she do, poor weak woman, even to conceal this
disgrace, much more to check it? Long since she had discovered that
between her and her husband there was no community of tastes or
interests; he never talked to her, he never read to her, she did not
know that he read at all; the garden he disliked as a useless trouble;
he would not drive, except such a gay horse that Hitty dared not risk
her neck behind it, and felt a shudder of fear assail her whenever his
gig left the door; neither did he care for his child. Nothing at home
could keep him from his pursuits; that she well knew; and, hopeful as
she tried to be, the future spread out far away in misty horror and
dread. What might not, become of her boy, with such a father's
influence? was her first thought;--nay, who could tell but in some fury
of drink he might kill or maim him? A chill of horror crept over Hitty
at the thought,--and then, what had not she to dread? Oh, for some
loophole of escape, some way to fly, some refuge for her baby's innocent
life! No,--no,--no! She was his wife; she had married him; she had vowed
to love and honor and obey,--vow of fearful import now, though uttered
in all pureness and truth, as to a man who owned her whole heart! Love
him!--that was not the dread; love was as much her life as her breath