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		Mrs. F. Bellew.
could know nothing of any woman before marriage.
  I felt very sorry for him and, fully aware
that there were two sides to the question;
that his loose-handed improvidence has enabled
the woman to contract debt after the manner she
does; that his lack of rigid honesty abets hers;
yet was persuaded that two-thirds of his accu-
sations were just.    To her, I believe his conduct
has been without fault; always kind, tender
considerate and gentlemanly.   He must have loved
her a good deal, once, if he does not now; he
has drawn her portrait thousands of times; one
finds it on his blocks, on the margins of sket-
ches, on scraps of paper; even the child, Allie,
has learnt to draw this omni-present, maternal
profile, and with skill.        Put what Bellew
told me this evening into combination with
his Nelly Strutt in �Ricketty Dick� and you
have Mrs. Bellew�s character complete.    In the
story the woman is horribly suspicions, jealous,
exacting, worrying, unreasonable and indirectly
the cause of her husband�s death.           All the
time of my stay, Mrs. Bellew was �sick� up-
stairs.     We had a quiet tea in the back
parlor, little Allie officiating, and a pretty, quiet
young girl, a friend of hers, of about her own
age being present.      Mrs. B. had something spe-