Had she been a few years older she might really have affected a
lasting reconciliation between them, for all that was best in George
made him love his daughter, and Emeline was intensely proud of the
child. As it was, Julia was too young. She might unconsciously be the
means of reuniting them now and then, but she could not at all grasp the
situation, and when she was not quite seven a decree of divorce, on the
ground of desertion, set both Emeline and George free, after eight years
of married life.
Emeline was too frightened at the enormity of the thing to be either
glad or sorry. She had never meant to go so far. She had threatened
George with divorce just as George had threatened her, in the heat of
anger, practically since her wedding day. But the emotion that finally
drove Emeline to a lawyer was not anger, it was just dull rebellion
against the gray, monotonous level of her days. She was alone when
George was away on trips; she was not less alone when he was in town. He
had formed the habit of joining "the boys" in the evening; he was surly
and noncommittal with his wife, but Julia, hanging about the lower hall
door or playing with children in the street, always heard a burst of
laughter as he joined his friends; everybody in the world--except
Emeline--liked George!
Poor Emeline--she could easily have held him! A little tenderness toward
him, a little interest in her home and her child, and George would have
been won again.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54