t fear Madame. You believe that she will resent what she would term
an intrusion. But you are mistaken. You will meet her next at dinner,
and you will see that she will be quite friendly. In fact, she did not
understand matters this morning. She was angry with me because I had
not notified her that I would bring home a guest, but when I shall
have talked with her that will be all changed."

So the matter was determined, and, as usual, Dr. Medjora's will
decided the issue. Meanwhile, Madame had ascended to her room in high
dudgeon. Since the day when we last saw her she had altered very
little. Her most prominent characteristics had not changed, except as
they had become more fully developed. But in many ways this
development had been deceptive, for, whereas many who knew her
believed that certain unpleasing features had been eliminated from her
character, the truth was that she had merely suppressed them, as a
matter of policy.

The union of such a woman with a man like Dr. Medjora, was an
interesting study in matrimonial psychology. In all marriages one of
two results is usually to be anticipated. The stronger individuality
will dominate the other and mould it into submission, or the two
characters will become amalgamated, each altering the other, until a
plane is reached on which there is possible a harmony of desires. In
this case neither of these conditions had been fulfilled, although
nearly all who were acquainted with the Doctor and his wife supposed
that the husband was the ruling spirit. The truth, however, was that
while Dr. Medjora controlled his wife in important matters, he had by
no means succeeded in merging her character into his own. Where
contention arose, she obeyed his commands, but she never submitted her
will. She surrendered, like a wise general, to superior force, but she
secretly resented her defeat, and sought a way of retreat by which in
the end she might compass her own designs.

By these means, she had deceived all of her acquaintances, and she
enjoyed the idea that she had also deceived her husband. In this she
was mistaken. Dr. Medjora understood thoroughly that his wife only
yielded to him under protest, and in many instances he had refrained
from making a move, when by doing so he could have thwarted her
subsequent efforts to have her own way. Thus he adroitly avoided open
warfare, satisfied that in secret strategy he was his wife's equal, if
not her superior. In this manner they had