trial to the mother to know
that contact with her was regarded as her child's greatest danger; but in her
humility and her love for Marian she offered no resistance. And so it came to
pass that one day the little girl, hearing her mother make some flagrant
grammatical error, turned to the other parent and asked gravely: »Why doesn't
mother speak as properly as we do?« Well, that is one of the results of such
marriages, one of the myriad miseries that result from poverty.
    The end was gained at all hazards. Marian grew up everything that her father
desired. Not only had she the bearing of refinement, but it early became obvious
that nature had well endowed her with brains. From the nursery her talk was of
books, and at the age of twelve she was already able to give her father some
assistance as an amanuensis.
    At that time Edmund Yule was still living; he had overcome his prejudices,
and there was intercourse between his household and that of the literary man.
Intimacy it could not be called, for Mrs Edmund (who was the daughter of a
law-stationer) had much difficulty in behaving to Mrs Alfred with show of
suavity. Still, the cousins Amy and Marian from time to time saw each other, and
were not unsuitable companions. It was the death of Amy's father that brought
these relations to an end; left to the control of her own affairs Mrs Edmund was
not long in giving offence to Mrs Alfred, and so to Alfred himself. The man of
letters might be inconsiderate enough in his behaviour to his wife, but as soon
as anyone else treated her with disrespect that was quite another matter. Purely
on this account he quarrelled violently with his brother's widow, and from that
day the two families kept apart.
    The chapter of quarrels was one of no small importance in Alfred's life; his
difficult temper, and an ever increasing sense of neglected merit, frequently
put him at war with publishers, editors, fellow authors, and he had an unhappy
trick of exciting the hostility of men who were most likely to be useful to him.
With Mr Polo, for instance, who held him in esteem, and whose commercial success
made him a valuable connection, Alfred ultimately broke on a trifling matter of
personal dignity. Later came the great quarrel with Clement Fadge, an affair of
considerable advantage in the way of advertisement to both the men concerned. It
happened in the year 1873. At that time Yule was editor of a weekly paper called
The Balance, a literary organ which