blame in his
marriage, the patient man now almost deserved to be pitied. First
Betty's skittishness; now her mother's remorseful _volte-face_: it was
enough to exasperate anybody; and he wrote to the widow in a tone which
led to a little coolness between those hitherto firm friends. However,
knowing that he had a wife not to claim but to win, and that young
Phelipson had been packed off to sea by his parents, Stephen was
complaisant to a degree, returning to London, and holding quite aloof
from Betty and her mother, who remained for the present in the country.
In town he had a mild visitation of the distemper he had taken from
Betty, and in writing to her he took care not to dwell upon its mildness.
It was now that Betty began to pity him for what she had inflicted upon
him by the kiss, and her correspondence acquired a distinct flavour of
kindness thenceforward.

Owing to his rebuffs, Reynard had grown to be truly in love with Betty in
his mild, placid, durable way--in that way which perhaps, upon the whole,
tends most generally to the woman's comfort under the institution of
marriage, if not particularly to her ecstasy. Mrs. Dornell's
exaggeration of her husband's wish for delay in their living together was
inconvenient, but he would not openly infringe it. He wrote tenderly to
Betty, and soon announced that he had a little surprise in store for her.
The secret was that the King had been graciously pleased to inform him
privately, through a relation, that His Majesty was about to offer him a
Barony. Would she like the title to be Ivell? Moreover, he had reason
for knowing that in a few years the dignity would be raised to that of an
Earl, for which creation he thought the title of Wessex would be
eminently suitable, considering the position of much of their property.
As Lady Ivell, therefore, and future Countess of Wessex, he should beg
leave to offer her his heart a third time.

He did not add, as he might have added, how greatly the consideration of
the enormous estates at King's-Hintock and elsewhere which Betty would
inherit, and her children after her, had conduced to this desirable
honour.

Whether the impending titles had really any effect upon Betty's regard
for him I cannot state, for she was one of those close characters who
never let their minds be known upon anything. That such honour was
absolutely unexpected by her from such a quarter is, however, certain;
and she could not deny that Stephen ha