The Secret,

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 15, 16 June 1911, Page 14

The Secret,

Or " Breaking Up the Home. ,,

IN SEVEN CHAPTERS —CHAPTER II

Her man came home much later than of wont, next morning, and more savage. He must have borrowed money somewhere, or got treated, for his breath reeked with cheap alcohol. And right well Maggie knew that one drink before midday is worse than two drinks after it.

Wise from, experience, slio foreboro reproach ; nor did he, on his part, make any traffic of words beyond a growl for food. He sat down stupidly enough and ate wfrat Maggie put before him. His critical mood seemed to have passed though now the place (by pitiless daylight) showed plainly its full squalor It was hideous —a mere two-room den for human beasts. The smaller room, hardly more than a closet, lacked light or air save what might percolate in from the larger ; yet in this hole three of the children slept, and ripened thereby for their fate. Mary, the eldest, coughed already. Having no other accomplishment, she was proud of it. This morning she was off to school ; the smaller ones were out with washing. The baby still lay on the unmade bed. It no longer cried, but slept soddenly. The- syrup bottle was empty almost to the drippings.

Dan, in a glaze-eyed half-unconscious-ness, sat and devoured. He felt a sort of dim relief that his night's bodyracking" toil was past, that sleep was near and that the baby did not cry. Hβ listened, not displeased, to the bubbling of the boiler, the R-r-r-r-r ! R-r-r-r-r of the washboard. were strung across the room ; on them wet clothes were dangling. Behind these Maggie worked. Both man and wife enjoyed this intervention. No words passed.

His meal at an end, Dan fired xip his T. T>. with slag and smoked it twice out, still sitting at the table—there was no other place to sit conveniently. He smoked hard and fast, eager (it seemed) to absorb as much nicotine as possible in as short a time. Ho inhaled the smoke and kept it down as long as he could. The air grew filmed and choking.

Once he raised his two hands and closely inspected them, looking at the horny,

By GEORGE ALLAN ENGLAND (in the " Chicago Daily Socialist. ,, )

cracked palms, the stiffened fingers, the nails in mourning with jetty coal dust. He had a blister on his left hand, and this particularly interested him. He observed it with attention, nodding his head the while. Presently he got up and shuffled to the -window, where a bit of wavey mirror hung. Inch by inch he examined his blackened face in which nothing but the eyeballs showed clean. And again he nodded his unkempt head with a sinister grimace. " Taint fer long, anyhow !" he articulated hoarsely. " Not fer long bo Gawd!' Maggies sharp earn caught the words. She stopped her rubbing. " G'wan t , bed wid youse !" she shrilled. " Ain't yez got no sense left ? Here 'tid m.d-marnin' an' youse ain't sleepin , yet. G'wan, I say !' . Dan glowered, but replied not. Only to himself he muttered, "Ah, well,, 'tain'b fer long. What's th' use a-jawin' ?" Without washing or undressing (there really was no placo to wash, and for two years Dan had possessed no nightshirt) he crawled over onto the back of the bed, next to the wall, pulled a greasy blanket over himself and lay quite still. Soon by his choking snores the woman knew her husband was asleep. And at her toil she whimpered into angry plaints, with a scrap of prayer and a etirse or two. Nothing frightened and enraged her like this mood of his ; the terror of desertion sneaked in close to her heart, coiled around and strangled it. Long since it had squeezed out all memories of respect and love. Antipathy, disgust and this cold fear of fears —these were all she harboured ; these were the garner of her married life. And her ambitions once so wide, had narrowed piece by piece to what—to this one overmastering determination not to be deserted -with her brood. Only too well she knew the meaning of that, -n the tenements ! She had seen it ; that was enough. "Gawd sind mc somethin' to scare him wid !" she begged, between two damning waves of hate. " Mother o . Gawd ! Help mo out wid somethin' for to hould 'im to it 1 * *"