eaving of a subconscious self not always
possible to ignore; but, as was her resolute custom, she forced to the
front that perception of the ridiculous which she had urged on her
sister. She bit her lips, to conceal a smile at Lydia's mournful
emphasis as she went on: "I forgot to tell you, Marietta, what I was
sent over for. You're to be sure to order the perforated candles. It's
the kind that has holes down the middle, so the wax doesn't look mussy
on the outside, and it's very, very important to have the right kind of
candles."

Mrs. Mortimer, willfully amused, looked with an obstinate smile into her
sister's troubled eyes as Lydia hesitated, waiting, in spite of herself,
for the understanding word.

"You're a darling, Lyddie," said the elder woman, kissing her again;
"but you are certainly _too_ absurd!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

BOOK III

A SUITABLE MARRIAGE

CHAPTER XVIII

TWO SIDES TO THE QUESTION

Lydia's unmarried life had given her but few abstract ideas for the
regulation of conduct, and fewer still ideals of self-discipline, but
chief among the small assortment that she took away from her mother's
house had been the high morality of keeping one's husband unworried by
one's domestic difficulties. "Domestic difficulties" meant, apparently,
anything disagreeable that happened to one. Not only her mother, but all
the matrons of her acquaintance had concentrated on the extreme
desirability of this wifely virtue. "It pays! It pays!" Mrs. Emery had
often thus chanted the praises of this quality in her daughter's
presence. "I've noticed ever so many times that men who have to worry
about domestic machinery and their children don't get on so well. Their
minds are distracted. Their thoughts _can't_ be, in the nature of
things, all on their business." She was wont to go on, to whatever
mother she was addressing, "We know, my dear Mrs. Blank, don't we, how
perfectly distracting the problems are in bringing up children--to say
nothing of servants. How much energy would men have for their own
affairs if they had to struggle as we do, I'd like to know! Besides, if
one person's got to be bothered with such things, she might as well do
it all and be done with it. It's easier, besides, to have only one head.
Men that interfere about things in the house are an abomination. You
can't keep from quarreling w