Is it any wonder that they have gone wrong, while _I_ only was at the helm?
My good news arrived only this morning, and yet, a hundred times in the short space that has elapsed since then, I have rehearsed the manner of our meeting, have practised calling him "Roger," with familiar ease, have fixed upon my gown and the manner of my coiffure, and have wearied Barbara with solicitous queries, as to whether she thinks that I have grown perceptibly plainer in the last seven months, whether she does not think one side of my face better looking than the other, whether she thinks--( with honest anxiety this)--that my appearance is calculated to repel a person grown disused to it.

To all which questions, she with untired gentleness gives pleasant and favorable answers.
The inability under which I labored of refraining from imparting _bad_ news is tenfold increased in the case of good.

I must have some one to whom to relate my prosperity.

It will certainly _not_ be Mrs.Huntley this time.

Though I have struggled against the feeling as unjust, and disloyal to my faith in Roger, I still cannot suppress a sharp pang of distrust and jealousy, as often as I think of her, and of the relation made to me by Frank, as to her former connection with my husband.
Neither am I in any hurry to tell Frank.