Drunkenness is so much a matter of
habit, and habit so much a matter of surroundings, that if you
completely change the surroundings you will sometimes get rid of the
drunkenness altogether. Ellen had intended remaining always sober
henceforward, and never having had so long a steady fit before,
believed she was now cured. So she perhaps would have been if she
had seen none of her old acquaintances. When, however, her new life
was beginning to lose its newness, and when her old acquaintances came
to see her, her present surroundings became more like her past, and on
this she herself began to get like her past too. At first she only got
a little tipsy and struggled against a relapse; but it was no use, she
soon lost the heart to fight, and now her object was not to try to
keep sober, but to get gin without her husband's finding it out.
So the hysterics continued, and she managed to make her husband
still think that they were due to her being about to become a
mother. The worse her attacks were, the more devoted he became in
his attention to her. At last he insisted that a doctor should see
her. The doctor of course took in the situation at a glance, but
said nothing to Ernest except in such a guarded way that he did not
understand the hints that were thrown out to him.
Pages:
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566