explanation of mysterious phenomena in human relationships. For my
own part, I am just as much in the dark as my mother. My father, who
was a shrewd man, was always puzzled, and could not read the riddle.
He used to say that he never thought George could have "made up" to
any young woman, and it was quite clear that Miss Leroy did not
either then or afterwards display any violent affection for him. I
have heard her criticise and patronise him as a "good soul," but
incapable, as indeed he was, of all sympathy with her. After
marriage she went her way and he his. She got up early, as she was
wont to do, and took her Bible into the fields while he was snoring.
She would then very likely suffer from a terrible headache during the
rest of the day, and lie down for hours, letting the house manage
itself as best it could. What made her selection of George more
obscure was that she was much admired by many young fellows, some of
whom were certainly more akin to her than he was; and I have heard
from one or two reports of encouraging words, and even something more
than words, which she had vouchsafed to them. A solution is
impossible. The affinities, repulsions, reasons in a nature like
that of Miss Leroy's are so secret and so subtle, working towards
such incalculable and not-to-be-predicted results, that to attempt to
make a major and minor premiss and an inevitable conclusion out of
them would be useless. One thing was clear, that by marrying George
she gained great freedom. If she had married anybody closer to her,
she might have jarred with him; there might have been collision and
wreck as complete as if they had been entirely opposed; for she was
not the kind of person to accommodate herself to others even in the
matter of small differences. But George's road through space lay
entirely apart from hers, and there was not the slightest chance of
interference. She was under the protection of a husband; she could
do things that, as an unmarried woman, especially in a foreign land,