By the Court. “Ah! this is satisfactory, Dr. Dodge, we have got to the sævitia at last.”
The Two Old Cats.
Mrs. Barber then assisted the Court in arriving at a precise conclusion by baring her arm up to the elbow, and indicating the exact spot where her brutal husband had inflicted the blow upon her. I have rather a feeling for a lady’s arm, and I very conscientiously declare that the very last thing I should have dreamed of doing with Mrs. B.’s arm would have been to hit it with a bootjack. However, there was violence proved. It appeared, as Dr. Dodge proceeded with the examination, that Mr. Barber, failing in his endeavour to induce Mrs. B. to write to her parents for additional supplies, was not satisfied with breaking and bruising her tender body, but actually had recourse to metaphysical terrors. He took her down to Herne Bay, far away from all human assistance, and hired a lodging there, at the stormiest season of the year. He then told her ghost-stories for two or three days, and used to take her up in a dark room, and set fire to saucers filled with spirits of wine, till the poor lady was brought into such a state of low nervousness that any imposture could be practised upon her with success. It was upon that occasion that he had turned two cats shod with walnut-shells into her bed-room, and by some diabolical contrivance had caused a luminous inscription to appear suddenly upon the wall. It was conceived in these terms:
BEWARE! BEWARE!
Don’t let the wife’s purse
Prove in marriage a curse,
When she’s taken a husband for better or worse;
Pounds shillings and pence
Must not give offence,
For Augustus’s love for Cecilia’s intense!
