at they got and had families,--and it
ruffled him seriously. He was not in a happy temper otherwise. A
fortnight of conjugal picnicking in the perpetual society of Adelle,
whose conversational powers were limited, had chafed him. So Adelle had
her first experience in that woman's pathetic task of endeavoring to
soothe and harmonize the disturbed soul of her lord, who, she is aware,
has only himself to blame for his state of spiritual discomfiture. But
Adelle, like all her sisters who love, since the world began, rose nobly
to her part.

Finally, they sallied forth and with some money that Adelle had
contrived to extract, probably from the sale of another piece of real
jewelry, they consoled themselves with an elaborate dinner at a famous
restaurant in the Champs Elysees, and as it was a warm evening drove
afterwards out to the Bois. The next day Adelle ventured forth to the
bankers alone, and secured the first quarterly installment of the funds
left there to her account by the prim Mr. Smith. With the notes and gold
she hastened back to Archie, and the couple began to plan seriously for
the future.

It is not my purpose to follow the pair in their erratic course during
the next eighteen months, although it had its ludicrous as well as
pathetic steps. That they were not ready for any sort of matrimonial
partnership, is of course obvious, but as they shared their disability
with a goodly proportion of young married people the world over, it does
not count. Adelle, being the woman, learned her lesson more quickly than
Archie, and under conceivable circumstances might have made as much of a
success with her rash choice, in spite of Mr. Smith's prophecies, as
many others make with their more prudently premeditated ones. She wanted
to be married, and on the whole she was content when she got what she
wanted,--at least, in the beginning,--which is the essential condition
of marital comfort. But Archie had not by any means been as anxious to
tie himself up for good as Adelle had been, and was more restive with
what he found marriage to a rich--at least, expectantly rich--wife to
be.

In a blind effort to find a congenial environment, they moved about over
the map a good deal. First they went to Venice, of which Adelle
especially had rosy memories associated with the dawn of love. They took
a furnished apartment in an old palace over the Canal, and set up four
swarthy, muscled rowers in blue sashes. Venice has been for many