ot rouse herself a single
instant to come outside it and be cross. On the contrary, she was
going to pull him up into it beside her, and they would sit comfortably
together, suffused in light, and laugh at how much afraid of him she
used to be in Hampstead, and at how deceitful her afraidness had made
her. But he wouldn't need much pulling. He would come in quite
naturally after a day or two, irresistibly wafted on the scented
breezes of that divine air; and there he would sit arrayed in stars,
thought Mrs. Wilkins, in whose mind, among much other debris, floated
occasional bright shreds of poetry. She laughed to herself a little at
the picture of Mellersh, that top-hatted, black-coated, respectable
family solicitor, arrayed in stars, but she laughed affectionately,
almost with a maternal pride in how splendid he would look in such fine
clothes. "Poor lamb," she murmured to herself affectionately. And
added, "What he wants is a thorough airing."

This was during the first half of the week. By the beginning of
the last half, at the end of which Mr. Wilkins arrived, she left off
even assuring herself that she was unshakeable, that she was permeated
beyond altering by the atmosphere, she no longer thought of it or
noticed it; she took it for granted. If one may say so, and she
certainly said so, not only to herself but also to Lady Caroline, she
had found her celestial legs.

Contrary to Mrs. Fisher's idea of the seemly--but of course
contrary; what else would one expect of Mrs. Wilkins?--she did not go
to meet her husband at Messago, but merely walked down to the point
where Beppo's fly would leave him and his luggage in the street of
Castagneto. Mrs. Fisher disliked the arrival of Mr. Wilkins, and was
sure that anybody who could have married Mrs. Wilkins must be at least
of an injudicious disposition, but a husband, whatever his disposition,
should be properly met. Mr. Fisher had always been properly met.
Never once in his married life had he gone unmet at a station, nor had
he ever not been seen off. These observances, these courtesies,
strengthened the bonds of marriage, and made the husband feel he could
rely on his wife's being always there. Always being there was the
essential secret for a wife. What would have become of Mr. Fisher if
she had neglected to act on this principle she preferred not to think.
Enough things became of him as it was; for whatever one's care in
stopping up, married life yet se