she was, according to an account of events in the Black Country Bugle, completely “infatuated with the handsome, poetical Irishman.” Aunt Elizabeth eventually gave her an ultimatum: end the affair with the penny-ballad salesman, or leave the house.* Kate chose the latter and moved into a lodging house with Thomas. The timing of this rupture was important; by July of that year, 1862, she was pregnant.
