Money did not come in quickly, for
Ellen cheated him by keeping it back, and dealing improperly with the
goods he bought. When it did come in she got it out of him as before on
pretexts which it seemed inhuman to inquire into. It was always the same
story. By and by a new feature began to show itself. Ernest had
inherited his father's punctuality and exactness as regards money; he
liked to know the worst of what he had to pay at once; he hated having
expenses sprung upon him which if not foreseen might and ought to have
been so, but now bills began to be brought to him for things ordered by
Ellen without his knowledge, or for which he had already given her the
money. This was awful, and even Ernest turned. When he remonstrated
with her--not for having bought the things, but for having said nothing
to him about the moneys being owing--Ellen met him with hysteria and
there was a scene. She had now pretty well forgotten the hard times she
had known when she had been on her own resources and reproached him
downright with having married her--on that moment the scales fell from
Ernest's eyes as they had fallen when Towneley had said, "No, no, no.
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