Page:Gissing - The Unclassed, vol. I, 1884.djvu/63

 been a bad husband. True, his wife dreaded him too much to ever provoke him in the least. During her lifetime his infidelities were of comparatively rare occurrence. Two years after his marriage was born his first and only child, a girl whom they called Lotty. Lotty, as she grew up, gradually developed an unfortunate combination of her parents’ qualities; she had her mother’s weakness of mind, without her mother’s moral sense, and from her father she derived an ingrained stubbornness, which had nothing in common with strength of character. Doubly unhappy was it that she lost her mother so early; the loss deprived her of gentle guidance during her youth, and left her without resource against her father’s coldness or harshness. The result was that the softer elements of her character unavoidably degenerated and found expression in qualities not at all admirable, whilst her obstinacy grew the ally of the weakness from which she had most to fear.the weakness from which she had most to fear.

But we are not greatly concerned with Lotty Woodstock’s early life, and must pass on quickly to later days. Her story was destined to be