Were they, too, demanded at my hands?
Not wholly--for a time.

Facts which I need not touch on here enabled my brother to obtain for me a legal separation, and when everything was arranged, I found myself guardian of my little daughter, and possessor of a small monthly income sufficient for respectable starvation.

With a great price I had obtained my freedom, but--I was free.

Home, friends, social position, were the price demanded and paid, and, being free, I wondered what to do with my freedom.

I could have had a home with my brother if I would give up my heretical friends and keep quiet, but I had no mind to put my limbs into fetters again, and in my youthful inexperience I determined to find something to do.