etween them that they had better not
be husband and wife. He had intended to convey the idea that he had
been more active in so arranging it than Cecilia herself. Cecilia
though she had read the letter had done so in such a frame of mind
as hardly to catch the truth. But he, Mr. Western, had caught it
altogether, and had believed it. Though he knew that the man was a
dishonest liar yet he had believed the letter. He was tortured at
the thought that his wife should have made herself a party to such a
compact, and that the compact should still have remained in existence
without his knowledge. Although there were hours during which he was
most anxious to return to her,--in which he told himself that it
was more difficult to stay away from her than even to endure her
faithlessness; though from day to day he became convinced that he
could never return to the haunts of men or even to the easy endurance
of life without her, yet his pride would ever come back to him and
assure him that as a reasonable man he was unable to put up with
such treachery. He had unfortunately been taught to think, by the
correspondence which had come from the matter of his cousin's racing
bet, that Sir Francis Geraldine was the very basest of mankind. It
was unfortunate because he had no doubt been induced to think worse
of his wife because she had submitted herself and continued to submit
herself to a man who was in his eyes so contemptible. He could not
endure the idea that a woman for whom such a partnership had had
charms should be the chosen companion of all his hours. He had
already lived with her for weeks which should have been enough to
teach him her character. During those weeks he had been satisfied
to the very full. He had assured himself frequently that he had at
last met a woman that suited him and made her his own. Had he known
nothing of Sir Francis Geraldine he would have been thoroughly
contented. Then had come the blow, and all his joys were "sicklied
over" with the unhealthy tone which his image of her former lover
gave him. She became at once to him a different creature. Though he
told himself that she was still the same Cecilia as had been his
delight, yet he told himself also that she was not the same as he had
fancied her when he at first knew her.

There is in a man a pride of which a woman knows nothing. Or rather a
woman is often subject to pride the very opposite. The man delights
to think that he has been the first to re