The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ... LADY ANN SPENWORTH IS A PRISONER IN HER OWN HOUSE T ADY ANN (to a friend of proved discretion: M-4 You must forgive me for making you wait like this. The servants have positive instructions to say that I am not at home to any one until I have been specifically asked. Why one should be at the mercy of anybody who chooses to burst in.... When all is said and done, the Englishman's home is still his castle. Partly I have been busy, partly I have been very much worried, partly I have been driven to it in self-defence. I only wish I had been more unyielding before. I told you of the mad clergyman from Morecambe who swept like a whirl-wind into this room, demanding to see my husband and, so far as I can make out, trying to browbeat my boy into marrying his daughter.... It began from that day, and I find it hard to forgive Arthur for not enlightening me. With Will it was altogether different; no man that / should care to meet would try to get out of a difficulty at the expense of a woman. The code forbids that.... But, if Arthur--who knew as soon as there was anything to know--had told me, I should have acted at once; we should not be in our present state of absolute uncertainty, simply waiting with folded hands for the next blow to fall.... Men have a strange idea that certain things are exclusively their province; their wives, even the mothers of their children must remain outside the door until it is too late to repair the damage. I was not told the facts until two days ago.... When my boy was offered that position at Morecambe, I went with him to see that he had a place fit to live in. The Phentons seemed our best hope, they were highly recommended, and I will say ungrudgingly that they played their cards well. An elderly clergyman, who had...