etched a good price, so that the thought of
marrying for money did not particularly commend itself to me. At
length, when I felt sufficiently certain of my own feelings to justify
such a step, I proposed, and was accepted with a sweet half-shyness,
half-abandon of manner, which was as piquant and charming in effect, as
I afterwards had reason to believe it was a consummately skilful piece
of acting--now, do not interrupt me, Leo; wait until you have heard me
to an end before you attempt to judge. Well, not to drag out my story
to an undue length, after an acquaintance of some six months we were
married, and it was about a month after that date that the miniature was
painted which I gave you.

"We removed to Rome, taking up our quarters in a roomy but somewhat
dilapidated old villa on the outskirts of the city, where, having now
someone and something worth working for, I devoted myself in good
earnest to the study and pursuit of my art.

"At the outset of our married life, our--or perhaps it would be more
accurate to say my--happiness was complete, but a time at length arrived
when I was obliged to ask myself whether I had not after all made a
mistake. Your mother's manner and demeanour to me was from the very
first characterised by a certain shyness, timidity, and reserve, which,
charming and proper enough as it might be in a maiden, or even in a new-
made bride, I fully expected and hoped would gradually wear off under
the influence of such intimate association as that of wedded life. But
it did not. She accorded to me rather the respectful and anxiously
timid obedience of a slave to her owner than the frank spontaneous
affection of a wife for her husband. Not that she was cold or
unresponsive to my demonstrations of affection, but she received and
returned them with a diffidence which lasted longer than I quite liked,
and much longer than I thought it ought to last. Then suddenly, and
without the slightest apparent cause, she began to manifest symptoms of
restlessness, anxiety, and preoccupation, which she vainly strove to
conceal beneath an assumption of increased tenderness obviously costing
her a very great effort. Her uneasiness was so unmistakable that at
length, finding she did not take me into her confidence, or seek my
assistance in any way, I questioned her about it, and was shocked and
grieved beyond expression to meet only with equivocating and evasive
replies to my questions. Then, for the first