wkwardness she could ill conceal. It required no
great observation in the travellers to discover, that their arrival was
entirely unexpected by the viscount, if it were not equally disagreeable;
indeed, one day's residence under his roof assured them all that no great
degree of domestic felicity was an inmate of the dwelling.

From the moment Lord Herriefield became suspicious that he had been the
dupe of the management of Kate and her mother, he viewed every act of his
wife with a prejudiced eye. It was easy, with his knowledge of human
nature, to detect her selfishness and worldly-mindedness; for as these
were faults she was unconscious of possessing, so she was unguarded in her
exposure of them. But her designs, in a matrimonial point of view, having
ended with her marriage, had the viscount treated her with any of the
courtesies due her sex and station, she might, with her disposition, have
been contented in the enjoyment of rank and in the possession of wealth;
but their more private hours were invariably rendered unpleasant, by the
overflowings of her husband's resentment at having been deceived in his
judgment of the female sex.

There is no point upon which men are more tender than their privilege of
suiting themselves in a partner for life, although many of both sexes are
influenced in this important selection more by the wishes and whims of
others than is usually suspected; yet, as all imagine what is the result
of contrivance and management is the election of free will and taste, so
long as they are ignorant, they are contented. Lord Herriefield wanted
this bliss of ignorance; and, with contempt for his wife, was mingled
anger at his own want of foresight.

Very few people can tamely submit to self-reproach; and as the cause of
this irritated state of mind was both not only constantly present, but
completely within his power, the viscount seemed determined to give her as
little reason to exult in the success of her plans as possible. Jealous he
was, from temperament, from bad associations, and a want of confidence in
the principles of his wife, the freedom of foreign manners having an
additional tendency to excite this baneful passion to an unusual degree.
Abridged in her pleasures, reproached with motives she was incapable of
harboring, and disappointed in all those enjoyments her mother had ever
led her to believe the invariable accompaniments of married life, where
proper attention had been paid to the ne