Well, it was a very interesting visit; I was warmly welcomed. The young
wife, who I must say is the daughter of a penniless country clergyman
with a large family, was radiant; the Major was quietly and
undemonstratively pleased to see me; the veil of the years fell off,
and I found myself back on the old easy terms with him, as when we were
schoolboys together thirty years ago. He is a very simple and
transparent creature, and I read him as if he were a book. He indulged
in almost extravagant panegyrics of his wife and descriptions of his
own happiness. But I very soon made a discovery: his charming wife is,
not to put too fine a point upon it, a fool. She is perfectly harmless,
good-natured, and virtuous. But she is a very silly and a very
conventional girl She is full of delight at her promotion; but she is
entirely brainless, and not even very affectionate. She as wholly
preoccupied about her new possessions, and the place she is going to
take in the county; she cares for her husband, because he represents
her social success, and because he is a creditable and presentable man.
But she has no grain of sympathy, perception, humour, or emotion. I
began by thinking it was rather a tragedy; my old friend had married
for love; he is anything but a fool himself, except for this one
serious error, the falling in love with a girl who can give him none of
the things he desires.
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