ve nerves of a
woman who knew the worth of social advantages. It had no effect,
however, on the mortal depression which was constantly Julie's portion
during the early weeks of her marriage.

As for Delafield, he had entered upon this determining experiment of his
life--a marriage, which was merely a legalized comradeship, with the
woman he adored--in the mind of one resolved to pay the price of what he
had done. This graceful and stately woman, with her high intelligence
and her social gifts, was now his own property. She was to be the
companion of his days and the mistress of his house. But although he
knew well that he had a certain strong hold upon her, she did not love
him, and none of the fusion of true marriage had taken place or could
take place. So be it. He set himself to build up a relation between them
which should justify the violence offered to natural and spiritual law.
His own delicacy of feeling and perception combined with the strength of
his passion to make every action of their common day a symbol and
sacrament. That her heart regretted Warkworth, that bitterness and
longing, an unspent and baffled love, must be constantly overshadowing
her--these things he not only knew, he was forever reminding himself of
them, driving them, as it were, into consciousness, as the ascetic
drives the spikes into his flesh. His task was to comfort her, to make
her forget, to bring her back to common peace and cheerfulness of mind.

To this end he began with appealing as much as possible to her
intelligence. He warmly encouraged her work for Meredith. From the first
days of their marriage he became her listener, scholar, and critic.
Himself interested mainly in social, economical, or religious
discussion, he humbly put himself to school in matters of
_belles-lettres_. His object was to enrich Julie's daily life with new
ambitions and new pleasures, which might replace the broodings of her
illness and convalescence, and then, to make her feel that she had at
hand, in the companion of that life, one who felt a natural interest in
all her efforts, a natural pride in all her successes.

Alack! the calculation was too simple--and too visible. It took too
little account of the complexities of Julie's nature, of the ravages and
the shock of passion. Julie herself might be ready enough to return to
the things of the mind, but they were no sooner offered to her, as it
were, in exchange for the perilous delights of love, than