Page:Lady Anne Granard, or Keeping up Appearances Volume 2.pdf/41

Rh of fact, she could not increase her love or her solicitude, she was not sorry to obtain from him approbation on any point she desired to carry with his wife. As she considered the whole family under the highest obligation to him, on their dear Louisa's account, and her young married sister in a superior, as well as happier, situation than herself, she would have found it difficult to interfere with Mrs. Glentworth (although her youngest sister), had she not been the sweet and amiable creature she was—if her husband had been the doting lover, one so much older is generally supposed to be. Since their arrival at Marseilles he was much engaged, and soon found that his business would detain him longer than he had expected; this information did not render his young wife, for a moment, petulant or impatient, for she was habituated to bend to another's will, and his pleasure was the law of her life; but his absence, which was frequently prolonged far beyond the time he had named for his return, always gave her extreme uneasiness, the effects of which were visible, despite of every effort made by her sister to divert her attention or amuse her time.

Men, who are bachelors to six and thirty, have rarely the punctuality required in married life; they are neither habituated to the sharp reproach of a hungry wife, nor the pleading paleness of an ailing one; and, when not selfish by nature, they become careless from habit, and, lacking the pleasures of a social meal, accept the freedom conferred as their