Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part IV - II
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THE CONFESSION OF A FOOL 257
found pleasure in drinking and playing cards with these
shady characters. The familiar tone which prevailed
revolted me. Marie posed to the students as the little
mother (her old game) ; she was the bosom friend of the
most objectionable of the women ; she introduced her to
me : a slut, who came down to dinner semi-intoxicated.
And in this hell my children had lived for six weeks !
Their mother approved of the place, for she Avas without
prejudices! And her illness—her simulated illness—had
not prevented her from taking part in the amusements of
this disreputable company.
She lightly dismissed all my remonstrances. I was
jealous, a stickler, a snob. . . .
And again it Avas war between us.
We were now confronted by a new difficulty : the ques-
tion of the education of the children. The nurse, an
uneducated country girl, was made their governess, and,
in collusion witli tlie moHier, committed the most out-
rageous follies. Both women were indolent, and liked to
stay in lied until broad daylight. Consequently the
children were obliged to stay in bed also, during the
morning, no matter how wide awake they were ; if they
insisted on getting up, they were punished. As soon as I
became aware of this state of things, I interfered ; without
much ado I sounded the reveille in the nursery, and was
greeted with shouts of delight as a deliverer from bondage.
My wife reminded me of our contract : personal freedom
—her interpretation of which was the limitation of the
liberty of others—but I took no notice of her.
The monomania of weak and inferior brains, that desire
to equalise what can never be equal, was the cause of much
mischief in my family. My elder daughter, a precocious
child, had for years been allowed to play with my illus-
trated books, and had, besides, enjoyed many of the
s
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