ect. He was
quite able to content himself with the thought that women were
incomprehensible, as he went back to his study. To be sure, it was
best to understand them, if you could; but if not, it did not so very
much matter, Mr Morgan thought; could in this pleasant condition of
mind he went down-stairs and wrote a little sermon, which ever after
was a great favourite, preached upon all special occasions, and always
listened to with satisfaction, especially by the Rector's wife.

When Mrs Morgan was left alone she sat doing nothing for an entire
half-hour, thinking of the strange and unhoped-for change that in a
moment had occurred to her. Though she was not young, she had that
sense of grievousness, the unbearableness of trouble, which belongs to
youth; for, after all, whatever female moralists may say on the
subject, the patience of an unmarried woman wearing out her youth in
the harassments of a long engagement, is something very different from
the hard and many-sided experience of actual life. She had been
accustomed for years to think that her troubles would be over when the
long-expected event arrived; and when new and more vexatious troubles
still sprang up after that event, the woman of one idea was not much
better fitted to meet them than if she had been a girl. Now that the
momentary cloud had been driven off, Mrs Morgan's heart rose more
warmly than ever. She changed her mind in a moment about the All-Souls
pudding, and even added, in her imagination, another dish to the
dinner, without pausing to think that _that_ also was much approved by
Mr Leeson; and then her thoughts took another turn, and such a vision
of a perfect carpet for a drawing-room--something softer and more
exquisite than ever came out of mortal loom; full of repose and
tranquillity, yet not without seducing beauties of design; a carpet
which would never obtrude itself, but yet would catch the eye by
dreamy moments in the summer twilight or over the winter fire--flashed
upon the imagination of the Rector's wife. It would be sweet to have a
house of one's own arranging, where everything would be in harmony;
and though this sweetness was very secondary to the other satisfaction
of having a husband who was not a clay idol, but really deserved his
pedestal, it yet supplemented the larger delight, and rounded off all
the corners of Mrs Morgan's present desires. She wished everybody as
happy as herself, in the effusion of the moment, and thought of