must, in the first place, have been
a marriage of choice on her part as well as on his."

Lady Mary poised her glasses on her large forefinger and assumed an
attitude suggestive of the clinical lecture room as she replied. "Ellen,
my dear boy, is an essentially romantic person. She is quiet about it,
but she runs deep. I never knew how deep until I came against her on the
issue of that marriage. She was always discontented as a girl; she found
things dull and prosaic, and the ardor of his courtship was agreeable
to her. He met her during her first season in town. She is handsome, and
there were plenty of other men, but I grant you your scowling brigand
was the most picturesque of the lot. In his courtship, as in everything
else, he was theatrical to the point of being ridiculous, but Ellen's
sense of humor is not her strongest quality. He had the charm of
celebrity, the air of a man who could storm his way through anything
to get what he wanted. That sort of vehemence is particularly effective
with women like Ellen, who can be warmed only by reflected heat, and she
couldn't at all stand out against it. He convinced her of his necessity;
and that done, all's done."

"I can't help thinking that, even on such a basis, the marriage should
have turned out better," MacMaster remarked reflectively.

"The marriage," Lady Mary continued with a shrug, "was made on the basis
of a mutual misunderstanding. Ellen, in the nature of the case, believed
that she was doing something quite out of the ordinary in accepting him,
and expected concessions which, apparently, it never occurred to him to
make. After his marriage he relapsed into his old habits of incessant
work, broken by violent and often brutal relaxations. He insulted her
friends and foisted his own upon her--many of them well calculated to
arouse aversion in any well-bred girl. He had Ghillini constantly at the
house--a homeless vagabond, whose conversation was impossible. I don't
say, mind you, that he had not grievances on his side. He had probably
overrated the girl's possibilities, and he let her see that he was
disappointed in her. Only a large and generous nature could have borne
with him, and Ellen's is not that. She could not at all understand that
odious strain of plebeian pride which plumes itself upon not having
risen above its sources."

As MacMaster drove back to his hotel he reflected that Lady Mary Percy
had probably had good cause for dissatisfaction with h