He looked up, and had pleasure once more in the sunny sky.  After all, he, even he, had not committed the most woeful of all blunders; though it was a mystery how he had escaped it.  The crown of his feeble, futile career should, in all fitness, have been marriage with a woman worse than himself.  And not on his own account did he thank protecting fortune.  One lesson, if one only, he had truly learnt from nature:  it bade him forget all personal disquietude, in joy that he was not guilty of that crime of crimes, the begetting of children by a worthless mother.

CHAPTER 2

Mrs. Morton felt a lively interest in Mrs. Rolfe’s musical enterprise, and would have liked to talk about it, but she suspected that the topic was not very agreeable to her guest.  In writing to Morton, Harvey had just mentioned the matter, and that was all.  On the second day of his visit, when he felt much better, and saw things in a less troubled light, he wished to remove the impression that he regarded Alma’s proceedings with sullen disapproval; so he took the opportunity of being alone with his hostess, and talked to her of the great venture with all the good humour he could command.  Mrs. Morton had seen two notices of Alma’s debut; both were so favourable that she imagined them the augury of a brilliant career.

‘I doubt that,’ said Harvey; ’and I’m not sure that it’s desirable.  She has made herself miserably ill, you see.  Excitement is the worst possible thing for her.  And then there’s the whole question of whether professional life is right and good for a married woman.  How do you think about it?’

The lady instanced cases that naturally presented themselves.  She seemed to have no prejudice.  Mrs. Rolfe appeared to her a person of artistic temper; but health was of the first importance; and then ——­

Harvey waited; but only a thoughtful smile completed the remark.

‘What other consideration had you in mind?’

’Only a commonplace —­ that a married woman would, of course, be guided by her husband’s wish.’

‘You think that equivalent to reason and the will of God?’ said Harvey jocosely.

‘If we need appeal to solemn sanction.’

Rolfe was reminded, not unpleasantly, that he spoke with a woman to whom ‘the will of God’ was something more than a facetious phrase.

’I beg your pardon; let us say reason alone.  But is it reasonable for the artist to sacrifice herself because she happens to have married an everyday man?’

Mrs. Morton shook her head and laughed.

’If only one know what is meant by the everyday man!  My private view of him is rather flattering, perhaps.  I’m inclined to think him, on the whole, not inferior to the everyday woman; and she —­ she isn’t a bad sort of creature, if fairly treated.  I don’t think the everyday man will go very far wrong, as a rule, in the treatment of his wife.’