the duel. The ill-omened birds settled down once more, until they covered
the roof and disfigured all the landscape.

To add to his troubles, he did not find that comfort and consolation in his
matrimonial relations which he would fain have had. It is true that he
married his wife first of all for her money; but he was far from
insensible to her other attractions, and, so far from wearying of them,
they took a stronger and stronger hold upon him, until this cold,
sarcastic, and unsocial man grew to be nothing less than uxorious. But his
wife recompensed his devotion but shabbily; her position had not fulfilled
her anticipations, she was angry at the loss of her money, and upon the
whole she repented having taken an irrevocable step too hastily. She felt
herself to be the intellectual equal of her husband, and she was not long
in improving the advantage she possessed of not caring anything about him.
In a word, she bullied the unfortunate gentleman unmercifully, and he
kissed the rod with infatuation.

This state of things was in force up to the time of Mrs. Pennroyal's
meeting with Archibald, as above described. After that there was a marked
and most enchanting alteration in Mrs. Pennroyal's demeanor toward her
husband. She became all at once affectionate and sympathetic. She
flattered him, she deferred to him, she consulted him, and drew him on
with delicate encouragements to consult her, to confide in her all the
private details of his affairs, which he had never done before, and to
intrust to her safekeeping every inmost fear and aspiration of his mind.
At every point she met him with soothing agreement and ingenuous
suggestion; and in particular did she echo and foster his enmity against
Sir Archibald Malmaison, and urged him forward in his suit, bidding him
spare no expense, since success was assured, and affirming her readiness
to mortgage her very jewels, if need were, to pay the eminent legal