The Serpent's Tooth by B.M. Croker

The case of Blagdon _v._ Blagdon and Lumley divided the County into factions and separated chief friends. Some said, that _now_ they thoroughly understood why Blagdon was reluctant to produce his wife in Society; obviously she was mentally unsound -- a woman who ran away, and returned to him the next day! She had been a shy, odd creature from the first. The opposition were violent partisans, and declared that a girl so young, pretty, and innocent, had been driven to desperation by the brutality of her monster of a husband. It was a curious but not uncommon circumstance, that most of the women took the part of the man; whilst the men-folk, and in great numbers, were solid for the lady.

Letty's few relatives lived in Ireland, and were not a little shocked to learn of her being mixed up in a scandal. They hid the paper from their friends, and discussed their black sheep in horrified whispers. The character of Mr. Blagdon had not been wafted across the Irish sea.