Page 655 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

pained her. Could she have offended him by some unlucky
word? She made Maurice ask him to dinner, and, to her as-
tonishment, he pleaded illness as an excuse for not coming.
Her pride was hurt, and she sent him back his books and
music. A curiosity that was unworthy of her compelled her
to ask the servant who carried the parcel what the clergy-
man had said. ‘He said nothing— only laughed.’ Laughed!
In scorn of her foolishness! His conduct was ungentlemanly
and intemperate. She would forget, as speedily as possible,
that such a being had ever existed. This resolution taken,
she was unusually patient with her husband.
So a week passed, and Mr. North did not return. Un-
luckily for the poor wretch, the very self-sacrifice he had
made brought about the precise condition of things which
he was desirous to avoid. It is possible that, had the acquain-
tance between them continued on the same staid footing,
it would have followed the lot of most acquaintanceships
of the kind— other circumstances and other scenes might
have wiped out the memory of all but common civilities
between them, and Sylvia might never have discovered that
she had for the chaplain any other feeling but that of esteem.
But the very fact of the sudden wrenching away of her soul-
companion, showed her how barren was the solitary life to
which she had been fated. Her husband, she had long ago
admitted, with bitter self-communings, was utterly unsuit-
ed to her. She could find in his society no enjoyment, and
for the sympathy which she needed was compelled to turn
elsewhere. She understood that his love for her had burnt
itself out—she confessed, with intensity of self-degradation,

For the Term of His Natural Life