He was a drunkard, abusive and quarrelsome.

I had never before been in intimate contact with anyone like that, and I was afraid of him.

Whatever of love I might have felt died within me under abuse.
He struck me the second day, and from that moment I dreaded his home-coming.

For weeks I scarcely saw him sober, and his treatment of me was brutal." Tears were in her eyes, but she held them back, forcing herself to go on.
"Then he was gone two days and nights leaving me alone.

He reappeared the third evening in the worst condition I had ever seen him.