He had got his overshoes off before I told him that John was out, and asked him if he wouldn't come into the parlour and hear Mother play the mandoline, but he just made one dive for his overshoes and was gone.

I knew that he didn't dare to trust himself.
Then presently a new trouble came.

I began to suspect that John was drinking.

I don't mean for a moment that he was drunk, or that he was openly cruel to me.

But at times he seemed to act so queerly, and I noticed that one night when by accident I left a bottle of raspberry vinegar on the sideboard overnight, it was all gone in the morning.