was to blame. Meantime she watched him narrowly, wondering
what his grave, sad demeanor and solicitous politeness signified. When
presently it became plain to her that not merely she was to be free to
follow her own bent, but that he was ready to provide her with the means
to carry out her schemes, she regarded his liberality as weakness and a
sign that he knew in his heart that she was in the right. Immediately,
and with thinly concealed triumph, she planned to utilize the new
liberty at her disposal, purging any scruples from her conscience by the
generous reflection that when Wilbur's brow unbent and his lips moved
freely she would forgive him and proffer him once more her conjugal
counsel and sympathy. She was firmly of the opinion that, unless he thus
acknowledged his shortcomings and promised improvement, the present
arrangement was completely to her liking, and that confidence and
happiness between them would be utterly impossible. She shed some tears
over the thought that unkind circumstances had robbed her of the love by
which she had set such store and which she, on her part, still
cherished, but she comforted herself with the retort that its loss was
preferable to sacrificing weakly the development of her own ideas and
life to its perpetuation.

Her flush of triumph was succeeded, however, by a discontented mood,
because cogitation constrained her to suspect that her social progress
might not be so rapid as her first rosy visions had suggested. She
counted on being able to procure the participation of Wilbur
sufficiently to preserve the appearance of domestic harmony. This would
be for practical purposes a scarcely less effective furtherance of her
plans than if he were heartily in sympathy with them. Were there not
many instances where busy husbands took part in the social undertakings
of their wives, merely on the surface, to preserve appearances? The
attitude of Wilbur seemed reasonably secure. That which harassed her as
the result of her reflections and efforts to plan was the unpalatable
consciousness that she did not know exactly what to do, and that no one,
even now that she was free, appeared eager to extend to her the hand of
recognition. She was prompt to lay the blame of this on her husband. It
was he who, by preventing her from taking advantage of the social
opportunities at their disposal, had consigned her to this eddy where
she was overlooked. This seemed to her a complete excuse, and yet,
thou