marriage to learn that it
demands a somewhat exorbitant price for joys otherwise more reasonably
to be obtained.

He was left a widower with two children, a girl of thirteen and a boy
of twelve, both somewhat large for their ages. Amy attended the only
private institution for the instruction of her sex of which Hampton
could boast; George continued at a public school. The late Mrs. Ditmar
for some years before her demise had begun to give evidence of certain
restless aspirations to which American ladies of her type and situation
seem peculiarly liable, and with a view to their ultimate realization
she had inaugurated a Jericho-like campaign. Death had released Ditmar
from its increasing pressure. For his wife had possessed that admirable
substitute for character, persistence, had been expert in the use
of importunity, often an efficient weapon in the hands of the female
economically dependent. The daughter of a defunct cashier of the
Hampton National Bank, when she had married Ditmar, then one of the
superintendents of the Chippering and already a marked man, she had
deemed herself fortunate among women, looking forward to a life of
ease and idleness and candy in great abundance,--a dream temporarily
shattered by the unforeseen discomfort of bringing two children into
the world, with an interval of scarcely a year between them. Her parents
from an excess of native modesty having failed to enlighten her on this
subject, her feelings were those of outraged astonishment, and she was
quite determined not to repeat the experience a third time. Knowledge
thus belatedly acquired, for a while she abandoned herself to the
satisfaction afforded by the ability to take a commanding position
in Hampton society, gradually to become aware of the need of a more
commodious residence. In a certain kind of intuition she was rich.
Her husband had meanwhile become Agent of the Chippering Mill, and
she strongly suspected that his prudent reticence on the state of his
finances was the best indication of an increasing prosperity. He
had indeed made money, been given many opportunities for profitable
investments; but the argument for social pre-eminence did not appeal
to him: tears and reproaches, recriminations, when frequently applied,
succeeded better; like many married men, what he most desired was to be
let alone; but in some unaccountable way she had come to suspect that
his preference for blondes was of a more liberal nature than at firs