s
alone in her room amidst the ruins of her life, and Basil alone in
the one-horse carriage, trying to drive away from the wreck of his
happiness. All was over; the dream was past; the charm was broken. The
sweetness of their love was turned to gall; whatever had pleased them in
their loving moods was loathsome now, and the things they had praised a
moment before were hateful. In that baleful light, which seemed to dwell
upon all they ever said or did in mutual enjoyment, how poor and stupid
and empty looked their wedding-journey! Basil spent five minutes in
arraigning his wife and convicting her of every folly and fault. His
soul was in a whirl,

"For to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain."

In the midst of his bitter and furious upbraidings he found himself
suddenly become her ardent advocate, and ready to denounce her judge as
a heartless monster. "On our wedding journey, too! Good heavens, what an
incredible brute I am!" Then he said, "What an ass I am!" And the pathos
of the case having yielded to its absurdity, he was helpless. In five
minutes more he was at Isabel's side, the one-horse carriage driver
dismissed with a handsome pour-boire, and a pair of lusty bays with a
glittering barouche waiting at the door below. He swiftly accounted for
his presence, which she seemed to find the most natural thing that could
be, and she met his surrender with the openness of a heart that forgives
but does not forget, if indeed the most gracious art is the only one
unknown to the sex.

She rose with a smile from the ruins of her life, amidst which she
had heart-brokenly sat down with all her things on. "I knew you'd come
back," she said.

"So did I," he answered. "I am much too good and noble to sacrifice my
preference to my duty."

"I didn't care particularly for the two horses, Basil," she said, as
they descended to the barouche. "It was your refusing them that hurt
me."

"And I didn't want the one-horse carriage. It was your insisting so that
provoked me."

"Do you think people ever quarreled before on a wedding journey?" asked
Isabel as they drove gayly out of the city.

"Never! I can't conceive of it. I suppose if this were written down,
nobody would believe it."

"No, nobody could," said Isabel, musingly, and she added after a pause,
"I wish you would tell me just what you thought of me, dearest. Did you
feel as you did when our little affair was broken off, long ago? Did