se; he was not, again, endowed with strong appetite; but his nature
contained possibilities of refinement which, in a situation like the
present, constituted motive force the same in its effects as either form
of passion. He was suffering, too, from the _malaise_ peculiar to men
who suddenly acquire riches; secret impulses drove him to gratifications
which would not otherwise have troubled his thoughts. Of late he had
been yielding to several such caprices. One morning the idea possessed
him that he must have a horse for riding, and he could not rest till the
horse was purchased and in his stable. It occurred to him once at dinner
time that there were sundry delicacies which he knew by name but had
never tasted; forthwith he gave orders that these delicacies should be
supplied to him, and so there appeared upon his breakfast table a _pate
de foie gras_. Very similar in kind was his desire to possess Adela
Waltham.

And the voice of his conscience lost potency, though it troubled him
more than ever, even as a beggar will sometimes become rudely clamorous
when he sees that there is no real hope of extracting an alms. Richard
was embarked on the practical study of moral philosophy; he learned
more in these months of the constitution of his inner being than all his
literature of 'free thought' had been able to convey to him. To break
with Emma, to cast his faith to the winds, to be branded henceforth in
the sight of his intimate friends as a mere traitor, and an especially
mean one to boot--that at the first blush was of the things so
impossible that one does not trouble to study their bearings. But the
wall of habit once breached, the citadel of conscience laid bare, what
garrison was revealed? With something like astonishment, Richard came
to recognise that the garrison was of the most contemptible and
tatterdemalion description. Fear of people's talk--absolutely nothing
else stood in his way.

Had he, then, no affection for Emma? Hardly a scrap. He had never
even tried 'to persuade himself that he was in love with her, and the
engagement had on his side been an affair of cool reason. His mother
had practically brought it about; for years it had been a pet project
of hers, and her joy was great in its realisation. Mrs. Vine and she had
been lifelong gossips; she knew that to Emma had descended the larger
portion of her parent's sterling qualities, and that Emma was the one
wife for such a man as Richard. She talked him i