weather it must bear--often as one has seen a wallflower grow--out
of a stone.

In the first weeks of their union, the Count had at least been
liberal to her: she had a horse and fine clothes, and received
abroad some of those flattering attentions which she held at such
high price. He had, however, some ill-luck at play, or had been
forced to pay some bills, or had some other satisfactory reason for
being poor, and his establishment was very speedily diminished. He
argued that, as Mrs. Catherine had been accustomed to wait on others
all her life, she might now wait upon herself and him; and when the
incident of the beer arose, she had been for some time employed as
the Count's housekeeper, with unlimited superintendence over his
comfort, his cellar, his linen, and such matters as bachelors are
delighted to make over to active female hands. To do the poor
wretch justice, she actually kept the man's menage in the best
order; nor was there any point of extravagance with which she could
be charged, except a little extravagance of dress displayed on the
very few occasions when he condescended to walk abroad with her, and
extravagance of language and passion in the frequent quarrels they
had together. Perhaps in such a connection as subsisted between
this precious couple, these faults are inevitable on the part of the
woman. She must be silly and vain, and will pretty surely therefore
be fond of dress; and she must, disguise it as she will, be
perpetually miserable and brooding over her fall, which will cause
her to be violent and quarrelsome.

Such, at least, was Mrs. Hall; and very early did the poor vain
misguided wretch begin to reap what she had sown.