From the beginning her instinct told her that her husband's object was not amorous, but purely monetary, a fact of which she soon had plentiful proof, and her great, indeed her only hope was that when the wealth was gone he would go too.

An otter, says the Dutch proverb, does not nest in a dry dyke.
But oh! what months those were, what dreadful months! From time to time she saw her husband--when he wanted cash--and every night she heard him returning home, often with unsteady steps.

Twice or thrice a week also she was commanded to prepare a luxurious meal for himself and some six or eight companions, to be followed by a gambling party at which the stakes ruled high.

Then in the morning, before he was up, strange people would arrive, Jews some of them, and wait till they could see him, or catch him as he slipped from the house by a back way.

These men, Lysbeth discovered, were duns seeking payment of old debts.