The Ringer by Edgar Wallace

SAM HACKITT had other trials than were represented by a vigilant constabulary. There was, for example, a lady whom in a misguided moment he had led to the altar--an act he had spent the rest of his life regretting. She was a loud, aggressive woman, who hated her husband, not for his offences against society but for certain weaknesses of his which led him to neglect his home--a collection of frowsy furniture in a dingy little room off Church Street.

Sam was as easy--going as most criminals, a fairly kind man, but he lived in terror of his wife. Since his release from prison he had very carefully avoided her, but the news of his return had spread, and there had been two scenes, one on Meister's doorstep and one in High Street, Deptford, when a raucous virago had followed him along the street explaining to the world at large the habits, character and delinquencies of Mr. Samuel Hackitt.