THE HONOURABLE MRS.

VAL AND MISS GOLIGHTLY The first eighteen months of Gertrude's married life were not unhappy, though, like all persons entering on the realities of the world, she found much to disappoint her.

At first her husband's society was sufficient for her; and to give him his due, he was not at first an inattentive husband.

Then came the baby, bringing with him, as first babies always should do, a sort of second honeymoon of love, and a renewal of those services which women so delight to receive from their bosoms' lord.
She had of course made acquaintances since she had settled herself in London, and had, in her modest way, done her little part in adding to the gaiety of the great metropolis.

In this respect indeed Alaric's commencement of life had somewhat frightened Mrs.Woodward, and the more prudent of his friends.
Grand as his official promotion had been, his official income at the time of his marriage did not exceed L600 a year, and though this was to be augmented occasionally till it reached L800, yet even with this advantage it could hardly suffice for a man and his wife and a coming family to live in an expensive part of London, and enable him to 'see his friends' occasionally, as the act of feeding one's acquaintance is now generally called.
Gertrude, like most English girls of her age, was at first so ignorant about money that she hardly knew whether L600 was or was not a sufficient income to justify their present mode of living; but she soon found reason to suspect that her husband at any rate endeavoured to increase it by other means.