I will describe the first of
these which I saw. The lecturer stopped for an instant and held up his
hand. In the middle of one of the side-walls of the room was a great
shallow arched recess. In this recess there suddenly appeared a scene,
not as though it were cast by a lantern on the wall, but as if the wall
were broken down, and showed a room beyond.
In the room, a comfortably furnished apartment, there sat two people, a
husband and wife, middle-aged people, who were engaged in a miserable
dispute about some very trivial matter. The wife was shrill and
provocative, the husband curt and contemptuous. They were obviously not
really concerned about the subject they were discussing--it only formed
a ground for disagreeable personalities. Presently the man went out,
saying harshly that it was very pleasant to come back from his work, day
after day, to these scenes; to which the woman fiercely retorted that it
was all his own fault; and when he was gone, she sat for a time
mechanically knitting, with the tears trickling down her cheeks, and
every now and then glancing at the door. After which, with great
secrecy, she helped herself to some spirits which she took from a
cupboard.
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