classic, and does to name a ship of war, but isn't quite the thing for
one's home and hearth.

"After our marriage we spent the honeymoon in Switzerland, and then
came home. I had a very nice estate, and have it yet. You've never
heard of Dacres Grange, perhaps--well, there's where we began life,
and a devil of a life she began to lead me. It was all very well at
first. During the honey-moon there were only a few outbursts, and
after we came to the Grange she repressed herself for about a
fortnight; but finally she broke out in the most furious fashion; and
I began to find that she had a devil of a temper, and in her fits she
was but a small remove from a mad woman. You see she had been humored
and indulged and petted and coddled by her old fool of a father, until
at last she had grown to be the most whimsical, conceited, tetchy,
suspicious, imperious, domineering, selfish, cruel, hard-hearted, and
malignant young vixen that ever lived; yet this evil nature dwelt in a
form as beautiful as ever lived. She was a beautiful demon, and I soon
found it out.

"It began out of nothing at all. I had been her adoring slave for
three weeks, until I began to be conscious of the most abominable
tyranny on her part. I began to resist this, and we were on the verge
of an outbreak when we arrived at the Grange. The sight of the old
hall appeased her for a time, but finally the novelty wore off, and
her evil passions burst out. Naturally enough, my first blind
adoration passed away, and I began to take my proper position toward
her; that is to say, I undertook to give her some advice, which she
very sorely needed. This was the signal for a most furious outbreak.
What was worse, her outbreak took place before the servants. Of course
I could do nothing under such circumstances, so I left the room. When