His imagination invested her with the taste for the fine arts which he required from a wife, and he married her in her first season, only to discover that the amativeness in her temperament was so little and languid that she made all his attempts at fondness ridiculous, and robbed the caresses for which he had longed of all their anticipated ecstasy.

Intellectually she fell still further short of his hopes.

She looked upon his favorite art of painting as a pastime for amateur and a branch of the house-furnishing trade for professional artists.

When he was discussing it among his friends, she would offer her opinion with a presumption which was the more trying as she frequently blundered upon a sound conclusion whilst he was reasoning his way to a hollow one with his utmost subtlety and seriousness.

On such occasions his disgust did not trouble her in the least; she triumphed in it.