I know Louisa will take
care of Jack, and she lives so near that you can see him as often as you wish.
I shall let her know my address, which I have asked her to keep to herself.
She will write to me if you or Jack should be seriously ill, but not for any
other reason.
As for you, there is nothing more that I can say except to confess freely that
I was not the right wife for you and that mine was not the only mistake. I
have tried my very best to meet you in everything that was not absolutely
wrong, and I have used all the arguments I could think of, but it only made
matters worse. I thought I knew you, John, in the old days. How comes it that
we have traveled so far apart, we who began together? It seems to me that some
time you must come to your senses and take up your life seriously, for this is
not life, the sorry thing you have lived lately, but I cannot wait any longer!
I am tired, tired, tired of waiting and hoping, too tired to do anything but
drag myself away from the sight of your folly. You have wasted our children's
substance, indulged your appetites until you have lost the respect of your
best friends, and you have made me--who was your choice, your wife, the head
of your house, the woman who brought your children into the world--you have
made me an object of pity; a poor, neglected thing who could not meet her
neighbors' eyes without blushing.
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