a; sometimes
as a sheer round of exercise in company, sometimes to visit a
print-shop, exhibition of pictures, book-store, or other attraction of
the hour. But the evening was for him the ideal portion of the day;
when, after dinner was done, they made themselves comfortable in the new
library, their living room, and it became his privilege to read aloud to
her or to compare ideas with her regarding books and pictures and what
was going on in the world. It had been a dream of Littleton's that some
day he would re-read consecutively the British poets, and as soon as the
furniture was all in place and the questions of choice of rugs and
chairs and pictures had been settled by purchase, he proposed it as a
definite occupation whenever they had nothing else in view. It delighted
him that Selma received this suggestion with enthusiasm. Accordingly,
they devoted their spare evenings to the undertaking, reading aloud in
turn. Littleton's enunciation was clear and intelligent, and as a happy
lover he was in a mood to fit poetic thoughts to his own experience, and
to utter them ardently. While he read, Selma knew that she was ever the
heroine of his imagination, which was agreeable, and she recognized
besides that his performance in itself was aesthetically attractive. Yet
in spite of the personal tribute, Selma preferred the evenings when she
herself was the elocutionist. She enjoyed the sound of her own voice,
and she enjoyed the emotions which her utterance of the rhythmic stanzas
set coursing through her brain. It was obvious to her that Wilbur was
captivated by her reading, and she delighted in giving herself up to the
spirit of the text with the reservations appropriate to an enlightened
but virtuous soul. For instance, in the case of Shelley, she gloried in
his soaring, but did not let herself forget that fire-worship was not
practical; in the case of Byron, though she yielded her senses to the
spell of his passionate imagery, she reflected approvingly that she was
a married woman.

But Littleton appreciated also that his wife should have the society of
others beside himself. Pauline introduced her promptly to her own small
but intelligent feminine circle, and pending Pauline's removal to a
flat, the Saturday evening suppers were maintained at the old
establishment. Here Selma made the acquaintance of her husband's and his
sister's friends, both men and women, who dropped in often after the
play and without ceremony for a