I hereby caution you that I shall not lose sight of you, and if at
any time proof of improper relationship should be obtained, I shall
take advantage of it.
CHARLES CRAGGS.
BLACKDEEP, 26th March 1839.
Dearest Mother,--This letter came this morning, and I send it at
once to you at Ely. Am I to answer it? When I read some parts I
wished he had been near me that I might have caught him by the
throat. I should have exulted that for once I could move him,
although it should be by terror. It is strange that not until now
did I know he was so brutal. Notice that, according to him, if a
wife leaves her husband it must be for a rival. He does not
understand how much she can hate him, body and soul, and with no
thought of a lover; that her loathing needs no other passion to
inflame it, and that the touch of his clean finger may be worse to
her than a leper's embrace.
When I had written so far I was afraid. I knelt down and cried to
our Father who is in Heaven.--Your loving daughter,
ESTHER.
ELY, 28th March 1839.
You must not reply.
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