Indifferently educated, and below her husband in station,
she had begun by accepting his addresses under the influence of
her own flattered vanity, and had ended by feeling the
fascination which Major Milroy had exercised over women
infinitely her mental superiors in his earlier life. He had been
touched, on his side, by her devotion, and had felt, in his turn,
the attraction of her beauty, her freshness, and her youth. Up to
the time when their little daughter and only child had reached
the age of eight years, their married life had been an unusually
happy one. At that period the double misfortune fell on the
household, of the failure of the wife's health, and the almost
total loss of the husband's fortune; and from that moment the
domestic happiness of the married pair was virtually at an end.
Having reached the age when men in general are readier, under
the pressure of calamity, to resign themselves than to resist,
the major had secured the little relics of his property, had
retired into the country, and had patiently taken refuge in his
mechanical pursuits. A woman nearer to him in age, or a woman
with a better training and more patience of disposition than his
wife possessed, would have understood the major's conduct, and
have found consolation in the major's submission.
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