The Soldier's Wife — page 98: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

-- had done: for be it observed that at the timejhouse, but laid it out in the hire of borks, | | CORMICOOOKSaleO THE SOLDIER'S WIFE. 8? tion relative to the means by whith she herself/of which we are writing, this kind of work was was to obtain a subsistence. During the two/ten times better paid than it is at the present months which by this time had elapsed since|day. The slopseller was well pleased at the _ their removal from Carlisle, she had lived with|neatness with which it was executed, and the utmost economy and frugality ; but still/offered her some work of a superior character, the little store of money they had in their pos-|/which she at once accepted; and the second session at the time was disappearing and if}week her earnings amounted to very nearly a Lucey had not already taken some steps to earn|pound. Thus hope once more glimmered up in ber livelihood, it was because so long as her/the bosom of poor Lucy; and all cares relative husband was in the hospital she had not the/to subsistence being thus banished—at least for heart nor the courage to think of any thing/the present—some little alleviation was ex- bot him. Now, however, that he was once|perienced for her sorrows. Still her happiness more at large, they discussed the matter toge-|would have been greater, could she have seen ther; and Lucy intimated her intention of seek-|that Frederick was the same being he formerly ing needle-work, as she had done when tliy}/was. To her and her little son he was stil) the were first at Carlisle. We should observe tha ,/same in all his devoted fondness,—passing his although accustomed to display the most ur jleisure time entirely at his wife’s lodging, walk- disguised frankness towards her husband, sh. jing out with her of an evening when it wae did not think it right to inform him of the con |fine, or else reading to her as she sat at work, duct of Colonel Wyndham, nor the insulting|Bunt often would he fall into those moode of behavior of Gerald Redburn: for she wasjabstraction and those deep broodings from alarmed Jest his manly spirit should prompt|which she had hoped that he would be weaned him to resent against those two ofhcers the in-|when restored to health. There were times, dignities they had offered to his wife, and thus/too, when he had a strange look, the theught inevitably draw down upon himself some sig-jof which often troubled her when she waa nal manifestations of their vindictiveness. alone, and haunted her occasionally in her On the day followimg the conference with!dreams,—a look that seemed to imply the deep Frederick, Lucy intimated to her landlady that|sense that kis were wrongs which craved she wished to procure needlework, and asked|vengeance, and that he would be revenged if her assistance. Very different was the con-jhe had an opportunity. Still she never ques- duct of this woman from that of worthy Mrs. |tioned him upon the subject: and still likewise Harrison, at Carlisle. She merely gave Lucy jshe went on hoping that all this would wear off afew general hints, without making the slight-/in the course of time. est proffer to forward her views. Indeed, she] She seldom stirred out of her room except did not appear over well pleased with the ap-|when accompanied by her husband: for she pheation,—thinking probably that her rent wasjhad on two or three occasions met Cojonel no longer safe, if her lodger’s circumstances} Wyndham and Gerald Redburn, who had were so precarious. looked at her with a supereilious Impertinence ; The suggestions which the landlady hadjaad she trembled a* ‘he idea of fresh insults thrown out were merely tu the effect tnat|from their hands—the more so that if they were Lucy might, perhaps, obtain work from certain joffered, she dared not tell them to her husband. shops the addresses of which she named; and|She had also met Sergeant Langley, whe had the young woman lost no time in applying in|flung upon her a malignant glance as he stalked those quarters. She was offered work from a|pompously by; and though she did not fear at slopseller, provided she could deposit five|his hands the same species of indignity which pounds as a safe return of the materials when|she had too much reason to apprehend on the duly made up. This sum Mrs. Lonsdale wasjpart of the two unprincipled officers above- speedily enabled to raise, having a portion by|mentioned, yet it did her harm to encounter her, and by pledging some of her jeweller7.|the man who had shown himself so bitterly It was her first visit to the pawnbroker’s; and|kostile to her husband. though she experienced a sense of shame on| Time passed on—months elapsed—and a entering the establishment, yet she parted from|comparative degree of happiness reigned at her trinkets without a pang, because she felt|the little lodging. The child throve apace, that it was to ensnre the means of subsistence|and was now able to toddle about from chair through her own honest industry. She took/to chair. Lucy’s earnings averaged eighteen the five pounds to the slopseller, and received |shillings a-week ; and every evening she enjoy- A quantity of work, with which she hurried/ed Frederick’s presence at the neatly spread heme and to which she at once sat down. |little tea-table. The private soldiers are cnly When Frederick presently visited her, she told allowed in the barracks breakfast and dinner: him what she had done. He embraced her|there is no provision for either tea or supper ; with all his wonted affection, but gently chided and thus it was Lucy’s satisfaction and joy to her for having parted with her own things in be enabled to provide a comfortable meal for preference to his watch, which had remained |her husband. Oft-times would he deplere the in her possession. However, it was no harsh circumstances of his position, which prevented word that he spoke—but merely an affectionate |him from doing anything towards contribucing remonstranece, and which Lucy accordingly re-|to the little domestic resources: for he had but ceived as a proof of kindness on his part. At tenpence half-penny a-week out of his pay in the end of a week, when she took her work|the form of pocket-money. This however he _ back, she received fifteen shillings for what she/did nct expend at the canteen or the put Yie- / ’