That had not mattered much hitherto,
since others had looked after his affairs; but now the control of them
had fallen entirely into his own hands, and he managed them in such a
way that expenses increased at a terrific rate, while his income
diminished with equal rapidity, and the question of total ruin only
seemed a matter of time.
His wife had no outside support. She was an orphan and friendless. Her
husband's relations did not like her and did not understand her. And yet
just at this time she required as a friend a man who understood her and
could help her to save her own and the children's fortunes from the
shipwreck, before it was too late. She felt great confidence in me, whom
she had met, at intervals, from my boyhood, and she now opened her heart
to me in conversation more and more. She confided in me fully, gave me a
complete insight into the torture of her life, and implored me to help
her to acquire her freedom.
Thus it was that while still quite a young man a powerful, never-to-be-
effaced impression of the miseries of modern coercive marriage was
produced upon me. The impression was not merely powerful, but it waked,
like a cry of distress, both my thinking powers and my energy. As
through a chink in the smooth surface of society, I looked down into the
depths of horror.
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