r
meaning for him, his mind was haunted, and he feared that hers might
be, by the natural significance of the rite. So far from meaning to
hint that she had been too wifelike, he had meant to acknowledge her
simple and natural fulfillment of his wishes in a position far more
difficult to fill than even he imagined. That she succeeded so well
was due to the fact that she entertained for him all the kind feelings
possible except the one supreme regard which, under ordinary
circumstances, would have accounted for the marriage. The reason that
all promised to go so well in their relationship of mere mutual help
was the truth that this basis of union had satisfied their mutual need.
As the farmer had hoped, they had become excellent friends,
supplementing each other's work in a way that promised prosperity.

Without the least intention on the part of either, chance words had
been spoken which would not be without effect. He had told her to do
everything in her own way because the moment he thought of it he knew
he liked her ways. They possessed a novelty and natural grace which
interested him. There are both a natural and a conventional grace, and
the true lady learns to blend the one with the other so as to make a
charming manner essentially her own--a manner which makes a woman a
lady the world over. Alida had little more than natural grace and
refinement, unmodified by society. This the plain farmer could
understand, and he was already awakening to an appreciation of it. It
impressed him agreeably that Alida should be trim and neat while about
her work, and that all her actions were entirely free from the coarse,
slovenly manner, the limp carriage, and slatternly aspect of the whole
tribe which had come and gone during the past year. They had all been
so much alike in possessing disagreeable traits that he felt that Alida
was the only peculiar one among them. He never thought of instituting
comparisons between her and his former wife, yet he did so
unconsciously. Mrs. Holcroft had been too much like himself, matter of
fact, materialistic, kind, and good. Devoid of imagination, uneducated
in mind, her thoughts had not ranged far from what she touched and saw.
She touched them with something of their own heaviness, she saw them as
objects--just what they were--and was incapable of obtaining from them
much suggestion or enjoyment. She knew when the cherry and plum trees
were in blossom just as she knew it was Ap