ven
in the seven years at Craigenputtoch, when one would think that out of
sheer weariness and want of occupation she would have written or
studied, we hear nothing of any such attempts. Her married life seems to
have quenched all this utterly.

Then all the domestic drudgery, which to her seemed such a burden, and
appears to have afflicted her to the end of life, seemed to him to be
the natural and proper thing for a woman. He had all his life been
accustomed to see his mother and sisters at their tasks, naturally and
uncomplainingly, and he could never understand why all women should not
feel in the same way. Then he was fond of solitude, and looked upon a
visitor as an emissary of the devil; and he failed to see that a gay,
pleasure-loving, volatile, sparkling girl could not share his feelings.
So he shut her up remorselessly,--never dreaming that he was cruel. That
she was fond of admiration was nothing to him, though he was fond of it
himself in his own grim way; _he_ was the central figure of this
household, and if she was deprived of a natural enjoyment it seemed a
trifle to him. In short, their whole philosophy of life was different,
their characters unsuited to each other, and their tempers of the order
described as "difficult." It is not necessary to blame one or the other
entirely for what followed. He saw everything in one light, she in
another; what but disappointment and unrest could ensue?

Had she clung to her original determination not to marry him, would it
have been better? Doubtless, yet it is certain that she learned to love
him, even too much for her peace of mind; and it is foolish to picture
her, as some have done, as a loveless wife. Probably at marriage she was
not what is usually styled "in love" with him, but that she did love him
through life is not to be doubted. And that, spite of all his neglect
and harshness and selfishness, he truly loved her and was essentially
loyal to her is as little to be doubted. Whence then came the
unhappiness,--an unhappiness which, we think, has in some places been
greatly exaggerated? As we said before, from their different points of
view. Take, for instance, the hardships of Craigenputtoch. They seemed
nothing to him, brought up as he had been, but much to her, who from her
youth had been the petted darling of a handsome home. This terrible
place, which has been described as worse than a desert island, was a
large and recently renovated old manor-house stan