she found that she was not to have any housekeeping money at
all.

"You are too young to have the care of managing money," said Dan.
"Just give the orders, and I'll see about paying the bills."

But the system did not answer. Beth had no idea what she ought to be
spending, and either the bills were too high or the diet was too low,
and Dan grumbled perpetually. If the housekeeping were at all frugal,
he was anything but cheery during meals; but if she ordered him all he
wanted, there were sure to be scenes on the day of reckoning. He
blamed her bad management, and she said nothing; but she knew she
could have managed on any reasonable sum to which he might have
limited her. She had too much self-respect to ask for money, however,
if he did not choose to give it to her.

It surprised her to find that what he had to eat was a matter of great
importance to him. He fairly gloated over things he liked, and in
order to indulge him, and keep the bills down besides, she went
without herself; and he never noticed her self-denial. He was apt to
take too much of his favourite dishes, and was constantly regretting
it. "I wish I had not eaten so much of that cursed _vol au vent_; it
never agrees with me," he would say; but he would eat as much as ever
next time. Beth could not help observing such traits. She did not set
them down to his personal discredit, however, but to the discredit of
his sex at large. She had always heard that men were self-indulgent,
and Dan was a man; that was the nearest she came to blaming him at
first. Being her husband had made a difference in her feeling for him;
before their marriage she was not so tolerant.

Her housekeeping duties by no means filled her day. An hour or so in
the morning was all they occupied at most, and the time must have hung
heavy on her hands had she had no other pursuit to beguile her.
Fortunately she had no intention of allowing her plans for the
improvement of her mind to lapse simply because she had married. On
the contrary, she felt the defects of her education more keenly than
ever, and expected Dan to sympathise with her in her efforts to remedy
them. He came in one day soon after they were settled, and found her
sitting at the end of the dining-room table with her back to the
window and a number of books spread out about her.

"This looks learned," he said. "What are you doing?"

"I am looking for something to study," she answered. "What writers
have helped you most