Page:The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton.djvu/210

178 him was the sweetest thing in life. Burton, however, though proud and fond of her, was of anything but an effusive nature, and his praises of any one were few and far between. When she was dressed for her first Drawing-Room—and very handsome she looked, a beautiful woman beautifully dressed—she went to show herself to her husband. He looked at her critically; and though he was evidently delighted with her appearance, said nothing, which was a great disappointment to her. But as she was leaving the room she overheard him say to her mother, "La jeune femme n'a rien à craindre"; and she went down to the carriage radiant and happy.

The Burtons were such an unconventional couple that there was a good deal of curiosity among their acquaintances as to how they would get on, and all sorts of conjectures were made. Many of Burton's bachelor friends told one another frankly, "It won't last. She will never be able to hold him." Shortly after her marriage one of her girl friends took her aside and asked her in confidence, "Well, Isabel, how does it work? Can you manage him? Does he ever come home at night?" "Oh," said Isabel, "it works very well indeed, and he always comes home with the milk in the morning." Of course this was only in joke, for Burton was a man of most temperate life, and after his marriage, at any rate, he literally forsook all others and cleaved only to his wife.

About this time a calamity befell them in Grindlay's fire, in which they lost everything they had in the world, except the few personal belongings in their