Free Woman by Marion Meade

Author:Marion Meade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 1975-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

On the night of July 3, 1870, a frightened and heartsick woman who had been recuperating in the country from an illness returned unexpectedly to her home in Brooklyn Heights. Her name was Elizabeth Tilton, but her friends called her "Lib." She went directly to her bedroom on the second floor where she found her husband, Theodore.

Lib Tilton had come home for the express reason of confessing. She told her husband that for the past year and a half, she had been having a love affair with another man.

At first she had not felt too badly because her lover had assured her their intimacy was pure and holy. Now, overwhelmed by guilt, she could carry the burden of the secret no longer. She spilled out the story to her unsuspecting husband and asked his forgiveness.

Stunned, Theodore listened in disbelief. When she had finished all he said was, "Who, Lib? Who is the man?"

"Promise me you will do no harm to the person?" she begged.

Theodore reluctantly agreed.

The name she finally uttered, in a small quiet voice, was the last one Theodore expected to hear. It was Henry Ward Beecher, the most famous minister in the land.

The Reverend Mr. Beecher had married the Tiltons; ever since, he had treated the young couple like a father or an older brother. He had even arranged for Theodore, a struggling young journalist, to become managing editor of the Independent, the country's best-known religious publication. In addition to all this, Theodore Tilton regarded Henry Beecher as his dearest friend.

"Incredible," Tilton thought.

Weeping, his wife implored him to tell nobody what had happened. She wished to blot the affair from her memory, pretend it had never taken place. Theodore, who felt "just blasted," numbly agreed to forgive and forget.

Each of them spent the night alone in separate rooms. The next morning, Theodore went early to his office but found he could not work. Tormented by jealousy, he could think of nothing but his wife's infidelity and his rage toward Beecher.

Lib Tilton had kept her secret for a year and a half. Theodore could not even keep it for a few weeks. One evening in early August he was having dinner with his old friend, Elizabeth Stanton. Before the meal ended, he had blurted out the whole story.

"Oh, that the damned lecherous scoundrel should have defiled my bed and at the same time professed to be my best friend," he cried. "I thought he was a saint. Oh, it is too much!"

Mrs. Stanton thought that she had never seen a person in so much mental agony.

Later that evening, returning home to Brooklyn, Theodore found his wife with another old friend of theirs, Susan Anthony. When the couple began to quarrel viciously, Lib accused her husband of being unfaithful himself. Susan, who had never married, found herself an unwilling spectator to this ugly domestic scene. Finally, promising to stay with Lib for the night, she persuaded the hysterical young woman to go to bed.

Eventually, Liz and Susan, who had been the closest of friends for many years, compared notes on what had happened that shocking evening.

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