AC dBooks

He looked down at me with
an indulgent and significant smile, which brought the colour rushing
back to my face, put me to sit by his side, touched my arm with one of
his large white clammy hands, stroked his long brown beard with the
other, and then in the half-reproving tone which a Sunday-school teacher
might have used to a wayward child, he began to tell me what the
consequences would be if I persisted in my present conduct.
They would be serious. The law was very clear on marital rights. If a
wife refused to live with her husband, except on a plea of cruelty or
something equally plausible, he could apply to the court and compel her
to do so; and if she declined, if she removed herself from his abode, or
having removed, refused to return, the Court might punish her--it might
even imprison her.
"So you see, the man is the top dog in a case like this, my dear, and he
can compel the woman to obey him."
"Do you mean," I said, "that he can use force to compel her?"
"Reasonable force, yes. I think that's so.


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