ust have; but for Heaven's sake don't waste it. Read, enjoy, sit
down to the feast prepared for you.'

'I wanted to _do_ something,' she persisted, refusing to catch his eye.
'I have read enough.'

'Read enough? Ha, then there's no more to be said.'

His portentous solemnity overcame her. Laughter lighted her face, and
Tarrant, laying down his pipe, shouted extravagant mirth.

'Am I to burn it then?'

'You are not. You are to seal it with seven seals, to write upon it
_peche de jeunesse_, and to lay it away at the back of a very private
drawer. And when you are old, you shall some day bring it out, and we'll
put our shaky heads together over it, and drop a tear from our dim old
eyes.--By-the-bye, Nancy, will you go with me to a music-hall to-morrow
night?'

'A music-hall?'

'Yes. It would do us both good, I think. I feel fagged, and you want a
change.--Here's the end of March; please Heaven, another month shall see
us rambling in the lanes somewhere; meantime, we'll go to a music-hall.
Each season has its glory; if we can't hear the lark, let us listen to
the bellow of a lion-comique.--Do you appreciate this invitation? It
means that I enjoy your company, which is more than one man in ten
thousand can say of his wife. The ordinary man, when he wants to
dissipate, asks--well, not his wife. And I, in plain sober truth, would
rather have Nancy with me than anyone else.'

'You say that to comfort me after my vexation.'

'I say it because I think it.--The day after to-morrow I want you to
come over in the morning to see some pictures in Bond Street. And the
next day we'll go to the theatre.'

'You can't afford it.'

'Mind your own business. I remembered this morning that I was young, and
that I shall not be so always. Doesn't that ever come upon you?'

The manuscript, fruit of such persevering toil, was hidden away, and
its author spoke of it no more. But she suffered a grave disappointment.
Once or twice a temptation flashed across her mind; if she secretly
found a publisher, and if her novel achieved moderate success (she might
alter the title), would not Tarrant forgive her for acting against his
advice? It was nothing more than advice; often enough he had told her
that he claimed no coercive right; that their union, if it were to
endure, must admit a genuine independence on both sides. But herein, as
on so many other points, she subdued her natural impulse, and conformed
to her husband's idea of wifehood.