Glorious by Jeff Guinn

fall to you. Remember: Never leave the laudanum bottle where Ellen can get at it.” He shook his head and looked grim. “I adore my daughter, and expect you to cherish her, and to protect her from the slightest harm.”
    McLendon hoped that his father-in-law might be exaggerating. There was no honeymoon because Ellen couldn’t be trusted to behave on a trip. Instead, Mr. Douglass took his wife away to New York for a week and the newlyweds stayed behind in the St. Louis mansion. Before leaving, Mr. Douglass reminded McLendon that Ellen could never be left alone.
    â€œDuring this honeymoon, if you’re sent word of some emergency in one of the factories, contact Brautigan and send him to sort it out,” he instructed. “Be patient with her. When Ellen’s in a fit, she doesn’t know what she’s saying or doing.”
    For most of the week, Ellen seemed happy, and McLendon did his best to feel the same. He still thought of Gabrielle sometimes, but his wife was beautiful, the suite of rooms they shared in the Douglass mansion was luxurious, and as Rupert Douglass’s son-in-law he was now a man of considerable standing. Ellen docilely took her laudanum doses, and they seemed to have the required effect. In theafternoons they played croquet on the wide green lawn. He let her win because it pleased her. At night she made love with a ferocious energy that surprised him. He wished their conversations were more rewarding. Unlike Gabrielle, who liked to talk about almost anything, Ellen seemed interested in very little beyond what her parents would bring her back from New York.
    McLendon wanted to be a good husband, and to come to feel the same genuine affection for Ellen that he had had for Gabrielle. The night before the Douglasses were due back from New York, McLendon and Ellen enjoyed a delicious meal. They were served coffee with dessert, and McLendon wanted a second cup. He rang a small bell to summon a servant, but no one came.
    â€œI’d better see what they’re doing in the kitchen,” he told Ellen, and left the dining room. It turned out that the cook had accidentally spilled a basin of gravy, and she and the other three live-in staff were mopping it up. McLendon retrieved the coffeepot and returned to the dining room. He hadn’t been gone more than two minutes, but in the interim Ellen had transformed from a happy bride to a screaming harridan.
    â€œYou’ve been with somebody else!” she shouted. Her eyes were wide and wild.
    McLendon was caught off guard. “What? I just went for more coffee,” he said, and held up the pot. Ellen screeched and knocked the pot from his hand, drenching the tablecloth and some window drapes with coffee. Then she charged McLendon, trying to scratch his face with her long nails. He caught her wrists and tried to hold her back. “Stop, Ellen,” he said, trying to soothe her. “What’s all this? What’s made you so upset?”
    Ellen clawed at him a moment more, then wrenched free. “You fucked her!” she screamed. “You fucked her!” McLendon wasastonished that she knew the word. It had never occurred to him that a fine society girl would.
    â€œStop saying that,” he pleaded, but Ellen persisted, spitting out the same three words over and over again. Then, just when he thought she’d never stop, she did. She stood silently and stared at him for a moment, then began battering her head against the wall. Her forehead was bruised and her nose began to bleed. McLendon grabbed her again and wrestled her to the floor. She howled and fought him until McLendon suggested that she take some laudanum. Ellen stopped struggling at once and said, “Yes, please.”
    She’d already had her two prescribed daily doses, but he felt that this was an emergency. Ellen watched greedily as he measured out the drops into a glass of water. She gulped down the drink and almost immediately