other woman for whom he cared greatly, he
might have had plenty of courage; but he was not likely to meet such a
woman in Moonstone.

There was a puzzling timidity in Archie's make-up. The thing that held
his shoulders stiff, that made him resort to a mirthless little laugh
when he was talking to dull people, that made him sometimes stumble over
rugs and carpets, had its counterpart in his mind. He had not the
courage to be an honest thinker. He could comfort himself by evasions
and compromises. He consoled himself for his own marriage by telling
himself that other people's were not much better. In his work he saw
pretty deeply into marital relations in Moonstone, and he could honestly
say that there were not many of his friends whom he envied. Their wives
seemed to suit them well enough, but they would never have suited him.

Although Dr. Archie could not bring himself to regard marriage merely as
a social contract, but looked upon it as somehow made sacred by a church
in which he did not believe,--as a physician he knew that a young man
whose marriage is merely nominal must yet go on living his life. When he
went to Denver or to Chicago, he drifted about in careless company where
gayety and good-humor can be bought, not because he had any taste for
such society, but because he honestly believed that anything was better
than divorce. He often told himself that "hanging and wiving go by
destiny." If wiving went badly with a man,--and it did oftener than
not,--then he must do the best he could to keep up appearances and help
the tradition of domestic happiness along. The Moonstone gossips,
assembled in Mrs. Smiley's millinery and notion store, often discussed
Dr. Archie's politeness to his wife, and his pleasant manner of speaking
about her. "Nobody has ever got a thing out of him yet," they agreed.
And it was certainly not because no one had ever tried.

When he was down in Denver, feeling a little jolly, Archie could forget
how unhappy he was at home, and could even make himself believe that he
missed his wife. He always bought her presents, and would have liked to
send her flowers if she had not repeatedly told him never to send her
anything but bulbs,--which did not appeal to him in his expansive
moments. At the Denver Athletic Club banquets, or at dinner with his
colleagues at the Brown Palace Hotel, he sometimes spoke sentimentally
about "little Mrs. Archie," and he always drank the toast "to our wives,
God bless