Mr.Whitelaw had no reason to retract what he had said in his pride of heart about Ellen Carley's proficiency in the dairy.

She proved herself all that he had boasted, and the dairy flourished under the new management.

There was more butter, and butter of a superior quality, sent to market than under the reign of Mrs.Tadman; and the master of Wyncomb made haste to increase his stock of milch cows, in order to make more money by this branch of his business.

To have won for himself a pretty young wife, who, instead of squandering his substance, would help him to grow richer, was indeed a triumph, upon which Mr.
Whitelaw congratulated himself with many a suppressed chuckle as he went about his daily labours, or jogged slowly home from market in his chaise-cart.
As to his wife's feelings towards himself, whether those were cold indifference or hidden dislike, that was an abstruse and remote question which Mr.Whitelaw never took the trouble to ask himself.

She was his wife.