w Ted had failed her in understanding,
in generosity, in any selfless consideration and love. Small instances
of his selfishness recurred to her and promptly became as signposts
directing her to greater ones. His care for his creature comfort, his
innocent vanities, his rather smug pleasure in his success--things
which she had smiled over with a tender lenience--served now to remind
her that he had never taken any account of her preferences, of her
independent possibilities, of her talent; that he had not, at any time,
made the least effort to comprehend or share her interests. He had
used her in his own work, and he had dismissed hers with a wave of his
hand, as he might have pushed away a child's toy. Whatever he had
discerned of her mental quality and power, he had regarded only in its
relation to himself; if she had been wonderful for him, she had been
wonderful as his helpmate, not as the individual. He had wanted her to
be wife and mother only, and he had accomplished that. With anything
else in her nature, in her life, he had had neither tolerance nor
patience nor sympathy.

Of course she went too far in her arraignment of him. She forgot, in
her sudden bitterness, the warmth and kindness of his heart, the
staunchness and integrity of his character, his desire and attempt to
shield her from all things harsh and hard--even though he shielded her
in his own particular way!--and the very real sincerity of his love for
her. She forgot that, by his own standards, his own conception of a
husband's duty, he had honestly and steadfastly done his best for her.
She saw her whole life fed to his selfishness as to an insatiable
monster; and most terrible of all, she knew that she saw too late.
Their marriage was made. As a husband Ted was formed and could not be
changed. If, in the beginning, she had had a clearer conception of his
nature; if she had had a stronger sense of her own rights as an
individual and the courage to assert those rights, everything would
have been different. She would never have been subdued to mere
wifehood and motherhood if that had been. She would never--she saw it
now!--she would never have made that compact of renunciation with God!

It was to the matter of that compact she came at last--inevitably. And
she said to herself, over and over now, that she would never have made
it if she had known herself and Ted better in the beginning. She would
never have made it because she would no