Page:English laws for women in the nineteenth century.djvu/49

37 form, and did not perform. I was never allowed to go out, even for a walk. 1 was permitted, Occasionally, to dine at the table d'hôte; and sent for, more than once, in the midst of my dinner, to be told that the meal was inconceivably long; or to be desired to put leeches that had been used, into fresh water. More than one person in the hotel expressed doubts as to my being really Mr Norton's wife, in consequence of his strange treatment of me; and, at length, after some explanations with me, the German doctor volunteered to remonstrate with my husband. He told him that I was ill from over-exertion and want of fresh air; that some of the tasks imposed upon me were not only too fatiguing but positively injurious; he advised Mr Norton to employ a "garçon des bains" to wait on him instead of me, and asked permission for me to visit his wife and sister, and walk with them. I wrote to " complain," as usual, to my family, and my brother came back to me. It will scarcely be believed that, after all this, I having, as I have stated, acted as Mr Norton's servant; having defrayed the whole expence [sic] of the dreary residence which was substituted for our tour; and being quite ill and worn out at last, with the way in which my days had passed; he took the first opportunity of again resorting to personal violence. I objected to his smoking in our little travelling carriage, especially as he smoked a hookah. I was irritated and suffocated by the volume of tobacco in so confined a space. I begged Mr Norton several times to wait till we arrived at the hotel. He did not answer or desist. At length I impatiently snatched at the pipe, and flung the mouth-piece out of the window. The carriage was then slowly ascending a hill, and Mr. Norton alighted and recovered the missing portion of the pipe. He then seized me by the throat, and pinned me back with a fierce oath against the hood of the carriage. I thought then, and I think now, that I should have been strangled in a minute or two more, but that I struggled from his grasp, and without even attempting to have the carriage stopped, slipped down