Anyway, this woman
had a husband who turned out bad. He was a grafter and a gambler,
a drunkard and a brute. He beat her and their five children horribly,
and finally she divorced him. The law gave her her freedom in five
minutes and there was no fuss about it, because she was poor, and
the newspapers have no room for poor folks' marriage troubles--unless
they up and kill somebody.
"Well, this woman was getting along all right when some good
religious people got at her about the sin of her divorce and the
broken sacrament, and they kept at her till finally she consented
to remarry her husband--for the children's sake! There was great
rejoicing by everybody--except the poor woman. After the remarriage
he returned to his old ways and began to beat her again, and finally
she emptied a revolver into him."
"Horrible, horrible!"
"Wasn't it? The jury disagreed on the first trial. But on the second
the churchpeople who persuaded her to remarry him went on the stand
and confessed--or perhaps you would say, boasted--that they persuaded
her to remarry him. And then she was acquitted. And that's why the
civil law has always had to protect people from--"
Doctor Mosely turned purple at the implication and the insolence.
He scolded Jim loftily, but Jim did not cower. He was upheld by
his own religion, which was Charity Coe's right to vindication
and happiness.
At length he realized that he was harming Charity and not Doctor
Mosely.
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