e tastes,
occupations, and habits of thought are diverse. All this is nothing
against your perfect right to please yourself. In this land, thank
Heaven! families and friends cannot yoke people together to pull
forward general and miscellaneous interests."

"You speak as if it were a slight thing when the woman whom a man
marries is merely accepted, tolerated, by his kindred."

"I have not said that, Graydon; I have only said again what I said
before--that a man has a right to please himself. The truth is trite
enough; why recur to it?"

"Gravitation is trite enough, but it often has an acute bearing on
one's experience. You do not like Stella--"

"And she does not like me."

"Very well; but you try to be just to her, and when she has lived a
while in different associations you will find her greatly changed.
I think you can be her close friend in the future. But Henry detests
her, and he is so quietly and obstinately tenacious in his views that
the fact annoys me exceedingly."

"Very well; you can't help that. You will live in different houses,
and your domestic life will be quite removed from business interests."

"Oh, confound Henry! He married to suit himself, so shall I. But,
Madge, dear Madge, you will try to love her--to help her to be more
like you, for my sake?"

At last Madge's laugh rang out merrily. "For mercy's sake, Graydon,
don't ask me to be a missionary to your wife," she cried. "If I
escaped with my eyes I should be lucky. You must think your wife
perfection, and make her think you do. Woe be unto you if you
introduce a female friend and suggest that she should be imitated,
even to the arch of an eyebrow. Oh, no, I thank you! That's a sphere
in which I shouldn't shine at all, and I wouldn't dare attempt it with
any feminine saint in the calendar. Oh, Graydon, what a dear old goose
you are!" and she laughed till the tears came into her eyes. He joined
her in a half vexed way, protesting that she was still as uncanny as a
ghost, although she had lost the aspect of one.

Suddenly she stopped, and tears of sorrow filled her eyes. "Here I
am, laughing at our absurd talk," she said, "when I have just left the
side of a poor girl, no older than myself, who is ghostly indeed in
her flickering life. Is it heartless to seem to forget so soon? Oh,
Graydon, you don't know what trouble is! You have only had vexations
thus far. Let me tell you what happened last night, if only to make
you grateful for your