ing away. He again renewed his offer, and entreated her to allow
the marriage ceremony at once to be performed by his brother the
prior. Jane was in much perplexity. She did not feel that her father
was in a situation longer to control her, and she was a little
mortified by the want of ardor which her philosophical lover had
displayed. The illusion of romantic love was entirely dispelled from
her mind, and, at the same time, she felt flattered by his
perseverance, by the evidence that his most mature judgment approved
of his choice, and by his readiness to encounter all the unpleasant
circumstances in which he might be involved by his alliance with her.
Jane, without much delay, yielded to his appeals. They were married in
the winter of 1780. Jane was then twenty-five years of age. Her
husband was twenty years her senior.

The first year of their marriage life they passed in Paris. It was to
Madame Roland a year of great enjoyment. Her husband was publishing a
work upon the arts, and she, with all the energy of her enthusiastic
mind, entered into all his literary enterprises. With great care and
accuracy, she prepared his manuscripts for the press, and corrected
the proofs. She lived in the study with him, became the companion of
all his thoughts, and his assistant in all his labors. The only
recreations in which she indulged, during the winter, were to attend a
course of lectures upon natural history and botany. M. Roland had
hired ready-furnished lodgings. She, well instructed by her mother in
domestic duties, observing that all kinds of cooking did not agree
with him, took pleasure in preparing his food with her own hands. Her
husband engrossed her whole time, and, being naturally rather austere
and imperious, he wished so to seclude her from the society of others
as to monopolize all her capabilities of friendly feeling. She
submitted to the exaction without a murmur, though there were hours in
which she felt that she had made, indeed, a serious sacrifice of her
youthful and buoyant affections. Madame Roland devoted herself so
entirely to the studies in which her husband was engaged that her
health was seriously impaired. Accustomed as she was to share in all
his pursuits, he began to think that he could not do without her at
any time or on any occasion.

At the close of the year M. Roland returned to Amiens with his wife.
She soon gave birth to a daughter, her only child, whom she nurtured
with the most assiduous