"
"And they were not happy?" I put in eagerly.
"Happy!" Cousin Bessie repeated with terrible emphasis. "I don't think
they were happy at the close of their wedding-day. She who had been
all smiles, all sweetness before, showed herself in her true colours
then. I have been told, that while they were traveling on their
wedding-day, she coolly remarked to him that, 'there was no reason now
why she should take the trouble to be always in a stupid good-humour,
that he had taken her 'for better, for worse,' and if it was 'for
worse' she couldn't help it.'"
"You can imagine how broken-hearted he became," Cousin Bessie
proceeded, seeing how impatient I was to learn the whole story. "He
grew morbid and gloomy at first, now appealing to her with the remnant
of his former passionate love for her, now indulging her every
caprice, thus hoping to guard against occasions that might provoke her
quick and cutting sarcasm; but he was always coldly and cruelly
baffled; he had married beauty and grace, and external loveliness in
the height of its perfection, but oh! what a soul was coupled with all
this!" Cousin Bessie exclaimed, shrinking into herself. "She was the
most eminently and systematically selfish woman that ever lived, and
she lived to weep and regret it. When she saw that her shameful
behaviour alienated her from the love her husband had once cherished
and professed for her, she declared herself injured and deceived, and
determined to revenge herself.
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