friends, and could not understand why she wished to see them so
often.

The girl was docile, and for a time he imagined that there would never
be conflict between his will and hers. Whilst enjoying their holiday
they naturally went everywhere together, and were scarce an hour out of
each other's presence, day or night. In quiet spots by the seashore,
when they sat in solitude, Widdowson's tongue was loosened, and he
poured forth his philosophy of life with the happy assurance that
Monica would listen passively. His devotion to her proved itself in a
thousand ways; week after week he grew, if anything, more kind, more
tender; yet in his view of their relations he was unconsciously the
most complete despot, a monument of male autocracy. Never had it
occurred to Widdowson that a wife remains an individual, with rights
and obligations independent of her wifely condition. Everything he said
presupposed his own supremacy; he took for granted that it was his to
direct, hers to be guided. A display of energy, purpose, ambition, on
Monica's part, which had no reference to domestic pursuits, would have
gravely troubled him; at once he would have set himself to subdue, with
all gentleness, impulses so inimical to his idea of the married state.
It rejoiced him that she spoke with so little sympathy of the
principles supported by Miss Barfoot and Miss Nunn; these persons
seemed to him well-meaning, but grievously mistaken. Miss Nunn he
judged 'unwomanly,' and hoped in secret that Monica would not long
remain on terms of friendship with her. Of course his wife's former
pursuits were an abomination to him; he could not bear to hear them
referred to.

'Woman's sphere is the home, Monica. Unfortunately girls are often
obliged to go out and earn their living, but this is unnatural, a
necessity which advanced civilization will altogether abolish. You
shall read John Ruskin; every word he says about women is good and
precious. If a woman can neither have a home of her own, nor find
occupation in any one else's she is deeply to be pitied; her life is
bound to be unhappy. I sincerely believe that an educated woman had
better become a domestic servant than try to imitate the life of a man.'

Monica seemed to listen attentively, but before long she accustomed
herself to wear this look whilst in truth she was thinking her own
thoughts. And as often as not they were of a nature little suspected by
her prosing companion.

He believed himself