father leonard, visited, soothed, and petted by his idol, recovered his spirits, and, if he pined during her absence, he was always so joyful in her presence that she thought of course he was permanently happy; so then, being by nature magnanimous and placable, she began to smile on her husband again, and a tacit reconciliation came about by natural degrees.
but this produced a startling result.
leonard, as her confessor, had only to follow precedents, and ask questions his church has printed for the use of confessors, and he soon learned enough to infer that their disunion had given way.
the consequence was that one day, being off his guard, or literally unable to contain his bursting heart any longer, he uttered a cry of jealous agony, and then in a torrent of burning, melting words, appealed to her pity. he painted her husband's happiness, and his own misery, and barren desolation, with a fervid passionate eloquence that paralysed his hearer, and left her pale and trembling, and the tears of pity trickling down her cheek.
those silent tears calmed him a little; and he begged her forgiveness, and awaited his doom.
"i pity you," said she, angelically. "what? you jealous of my husband! oh, pray to christ and our lady to cure you of this folly."
she rose, fluttering inwardly, but calm as a statue on the outside, gave him her hand, and went home very slowly; and the moment she was out of his sight she drooped her head like a crushed flower.
she was sad, ashamed, alarmed.
her mind was in a whirl; and, were i to imitate those writers who undertake to dissect and analyse the heart at such moments, and put the exact result on paper, i should be apt to sacrifice truth to precision; i must stick to my old plan, and tell you what she did: that will surely be some index to her mind, especially with my female readers.
she went home straight to her husband; he was smoking his pipe after dinner. she drew her chair close to him, and laid her hand tenderly on his shoulder. "griffith," she said, "will you grant your wife a favour? you once promised to take me abroad: i desire to go now: i long to see foreign countries: i am tired of this place. i want a change. prithee, prithee take me hence this very day."
griffith looked aghast. "why, sweetheart, it takes a deal of money to go abroad; we must get in our rents first."
"nay, i have a hundred pounds laid by."
"well, but what a fancy to take all of a sudden!"
"oh, griffith, don't deny me what i ask you, with my arm round your neck, dearest. it is no fancy. i want to be alone with you, far from this place where coolness has come between us." and with this she fell to crying and sobbing, and straining him tight to her bosom, as if she feared to lose him, or be taken from him.
griffith kissed her, and told her to cheer up, he was not the man to deny her anything. "just let me get my hay in," said he, "and i'll take you to rome, if you like."
"no, no: to-day, or to-morrow at furthest, or you don't love me as i deserve to be loved by you this day."
"now kate, my darling, be reasonable. i must get my hay in; and then i am your man."
mrs. gaunt had gradually sunk almost to her knees. she now started up with nostrils expanding and her blue eyes glittering. "your hay!" she cried, with bitter contempt; "your hay before your wife? that is how you love me."
and, the next moment, she seemed to turn from a fiery woman to a glacier.
griffith smiled at all this with that lordly superiority the male of our species sometimes wears when he is behaving like a dull ass; and smoked his pipe, and resolved to indulge her whim as soon as ever he had got his hay in.
