o go."

CHAPTER XIX

A DEVOTED WIFE

To anyone who knew Percy Kellynch and his wife, it would have been a
matter of some surprise to observe the extreme enthusiasm and devotion
that she showed for him. He was an excellent fellow, and had many good
qualities, but he was not mentally by any means anything at all
extraordinary; she was a very much more highly organised being in every
possible way than he was. Percy was exceedingly kind and straight, yet
there were, doubtless, many thousands of men exactly like him in
England. In his rather simple and commonplace point of view he was,
perhaps more like an ordinary English soldier than a barrister. He did
not worship false gods, but, not being a soldier, and having perhaps
learnt more of life in some respects than they generally do, he was
inclined to be rather surprised at his own cleverness. In a quiet way he
had a high opinion of himself. He had been disposed to be a superior
young man at twenty, and now, at thirty, he was not without a tinge of
self-satisfaction, even pompousness. That his quickly discerning, subtle
little wife should like and appreciate his good qualities; that she
should, being of an affectionate nature, value him, was not surprising;
but that, with her sense of humour and remarkable quickness, even depth
of intellect, she should absolutely worship and adore him--for it
amounted to that--was rather a matter of astonishment. But it must be
remembered that her first love, Nigel Hillier, when she was eighteen,
was, obviously, just exactly what one would have expected to dazzle
her--quick, lively, fascinating and witty--this early romance had been a
terrible disappointment. Bertha had bravely been prepared to wait for
years, or to marry him on the moment; she had not the faintest idea that
the money difficulties would be used to put an end to it on _his_ side.
When he had broken it off, saying that he feared her father was right,
and that it was for her sake, she was terribly pained, seeing at once
that his love was not of the same quality as hers. But when, in less
than a week after that, he told her of his other engagement, it very
nearly broke her heart, as the phrase goes. Yet she cured herself; and
considering how young she was, she had an astonishing power of
self-control; she was almost cured of her love, if not her grief, in a
fortnight! She accepted Percy at the time without romance, though with a
great liking, and looking up to him wit