Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/69

Rh which the proprietor had had him confined; physicians were sent for, and the greatest excitement prevailed in the house; but the lady recovering after a few days, sent for me, paid me my wages, and said she intended getting a divorce from him as quickly as possible. I, of course, never expected to see those two people together again. But, bless your heart, dear reader, they breakfasted together one morning, and went off on the cars as loving as a pair of turtle doves. I ought not to have been in the least surprised at this, for I had known several cases as strangely inconsistent before.

I knew a man who pinched his wife when they were alone together, and told her he did not love her, and tortured her in every way imaginable; while in company you would have thought him the most devoted of husbands and lovers. He was positively cruel; and I threatened to inform her mother of his conduct, when she implored me not to do so, saying, "Charles is only a little hasty; don't tell anybody about it, Iangy."

Watering-places betray many characters, and much misery, that would never be found out, if people who certainly know they must cut a ridiculous figure, and make an entire failure of it, would only be wise enough to stay at home. Envy, hatred and malice all show themselves at watering-places.

I remember one summer there was to be a fancy ball, at which it was expected Miss H., of Baltimore, would shine pre-eminent in dress and manner. Her figure was elegant, and her toilet exquisite; but it happened that on the evening of the ball news came of the death of an intimate friend of hers in Cincinnati, which, by unanimous consent of her acquaintances, 6