The confidential notes that passed between them, and their unexplained private meetings, at length aroused the suspicions of her husband, and their conjugal relations were for a time exceedingly strained, and I doubt if these two have ever been quite as completely trustful since. One or two lucky wins at Epsom, and a few good nights at poker at friends’ houses helped to put her on her financial feet again, and the suspense and excitement of this experience afforded intense gratification to her gambler’s spirit, but her husband still feels, I think, that he was never told all the truth about her confidential friendship with that seductive young man. He must often wonder, too, how much his wife really wins after those long sittings at the card-tables, but as he always protests against her winning money from their friends, he must be conscious that she keeps a good deal from his knowledge. At all events, her bank pass-book is a sealed book to him. Mrs. Hazard is very keen about horse-racing. She was bred in Yorkshire, and loves horses, and knows the Stud-book almost by heart. She studies the Racing Calendar, and follows the careers of the racers with almost professional interest. A racecourse to her is an Elysium, and among her social set are many racing men, who give her “tips,” while their wives invite her to accompany them to Sandown, Ascot, Kempton, and Epsom. Her husband takes no interest in this kind of thing, but he does not hinder her going, and she carefully omits to tell him the result of her day’s betting. And, after all, why should she tell him? It would only annoy him, and the excitement of the racing is over. She _must_ bet and gamble, or life would be mere stagnation to her. The rearing of children, the display of the domestic affections, the shallow pleasures of Society, and the charms of culture, are not alone sufficient to satisfy the cravings of her nature, though they may be for many women. She can enjoy all these, but she must have in addition the intoxicating delights of chance and risk. _A SINGER—AND HER MOTHER_