Page:The Clergyman's Wife.djvu/11



T was a fruitful subject for wonder, speculation, and gossip, when Amy Morton bestowed her hand upon Ethan Mildmay, the youthful pastor of an unpretending flock, in a remote New England village. Mr. Mildmay's salary was very small, and his worldly prospects gave no large promise. Moreover, his health was far from robust, for the nervous activity of his mind too often exhausted his physical strength, paled the glow of his unrounded cheek, shadowed his musing eyes by the drooping of weary lids, and left his form too slender for its exceeding height.

Amy had been delicately nurtured. In the home she left for Ethan's she had been surrounded by every desirable luxury. Her sunny sweetness of temperament made her the gladdening centre of a large social circle. She enjoyed, too, what people are apt indefinitely to call "the world." She took pleasure in travelling, she delighted in merry gatherings, she joined in the dance with spirit, she appreciated literature and art, a fine concert, a good play, a grand opera. The