Page:Madame Rolland (Blind 1886).djvu/86

76 by nature, of retiring habits, reserved manners, and a reflective turn of mind. Yet his philosophy was not incompatible with much irritability of temper, owing, in part, to derangement of the digestive functions. Monsieur and Madame Roland passed the first year of their marriage in Paris, where the latter's time was quite engrossed by participation in her husband's work, and the little cares and vexations incident to a fresh kind of housekeeping, with slender means in furnished lodgings. She had less leisure than in her maiden days for inditing those long epistles to Sophie, which now gradually shrank, till they ceased entirely on her husband's return to Amiens. Madame Roland had looked forward with much delight to the society of Sophie and Henriette, when she should be in the same town with them; but, morbidly jealous, at this the beginning of their union, of any affection not given to him, Roland exacted a promise that she would see as little as possible of these dear friends of hers. She resigned herself to it, and, in fact, hardly ever left her husband's side. Living in the same room, studying the same books, sitting at the same table, she wrote to his dictation, copied and revised his manuscripts, and corrected his proofs. This life of constant application was only varied by an occasional walk out of the gates of Amiens. The great discrepancy of age between Roland and his wife gave the former an undue authority in their relations, and for several years after their marriage Madame Roland never ventured to contradict him for fear of seeing a frown clouding his brow. But, owing to this habit of doing everything, in company with his wife, Roland became at last incapable of doing anything without her, so that her genius insensibly gained the influence due to it by nature.