Time Will Tell (1868)
by Stephen Watson Fullom (9780217645126)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE SEPARATION. Nothing could be completer than Mr. Blandford's dominion over his wife and daughter. He was never harsh, and never spoke in anger, yet he had brought them to regard him with awe, and he required but to say " do this," and it was done, or " go there," and they went. They could have given no reason for their compliance; it was a habit, and they obeyed, because they never dreamt of resisting. Both were disquieted at his going out without seeing Annie, and their uneasiness increased when hour succeeded hour and he continued absent. They understood that his succession to property involved arrangements which might take him out unexpectedly, and hence they would have thought little of the incident on another occasion; but he had not seen Annie for a year; he knew she had arrived; and at a time when they had so much reason for misgiving, it seemed ominous that he left her ungreeted. They expected that he would return to dinner, but he made no appearance/nor had he come back when the household retired to rest; not that this was unusual, as he let himself in with a latch-key, at all hours. But no step on the stairs announced his return to-night, and the morrow found him still absent, making them both miserable. Thus they watched for him through the morning, alternately expecting and dreading, and, with strained ears, starting at every knock at the door. Annie tried to reassure her mother, and did afford her comfort, though she could not give her courage?the courage a sense of wrong began to kiudle in herself. She was really as depressed as her mother, but she was nerved by resentment, which inspiredher with self-reliance. She had brooded over such experiences before, and they had been silently consolidating her character, moulding it unnoted, and fo...

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