is fit for dramatic treatment is not sufficiently
removed from sanity.

"JAMES LEE'S WIFE" is the study of a female character developed by
circumstances, and also impressing itself on them; the circumstances
being those of an unfortunate marriage, in which the love has been
mutual, but the constancy is all on the woman's side. "James Lee" is (as
we understand) a man of shallow nature, whose wife's earnestness repels
him when its novelty has ceased to charm. The "Wife" is keenly alive to
his change of feeling towards her: and even anticipates it, in
melancholy forebodings which probably hasten its course.

I.

JAMES LEE'S WIFE SPEAKS AT THE WINDOW.

Love carries already the seed of doubt. The wife addresses her husband,
who is approaching from outside, in words of anxious tenderness. The
season is changing; coming winter is in the air. Will his love change
too?

II.

BY THE FIRESIDE.

The note of apprehension deepens. The fire they are sitting by is
supplied by ship-wood. It suggests the dangers of the sea, the sailor's
longing for land and home. "But the life in port has its dangers too.
There are worms which gnaw the ship in harbour, as the heart in sleep.
Did some woman before her, in this very house perhaps, begin love's
voyage full sail, and then suddenly see the ship's planks start, and
hell open beneath the man she loves?"

III.

IN THE DOORWAY.

She remonstrates with her fear. Winter is drawing nearer: nature
becoming cold and bare. But they two have all the necessaries of life,
and love besides. The human spirit (the spirit of love) was meant by God
to resist change, to put its life into the darkness and the cold. It
should fear neither.

IV.

ALONG THE BEACH.

The fear has become a certainty. The wife reasons with her husband as
they walk together. "He wanted her love, and she gave it to him. He has
it, and yet is not content. Why so? She is not blind to his faults, but
she does not love him the less for them. She has taken him as he was,
with the good seed in him and the bad, waiting patiently for the good to
bring its harvest; enduring patiently when the harvest failed. Whether
praiseworthy or blameworthy, he has been her world!"

"That is what condemns her in his eyes: she loves too well; she watches
too patiently. His nature is impatient of bondage. Such devotion as hers
is a bond."

V.

ON THE CLIFF.

She reflects on the power of love. A cricket and a butterfly settle