It was very dull.  He was obliged to acknowledge to himself, when he thought over the subject, that the life which he was leading was dull.  Though he could go into his club without annoyance, nobody there ever thought of asking him to join them at dinner.  It was taken for granted that he was going to dine at home; and in the absence of any provocation to the contrary, he always did dine at home.  He had now been in his house for three weeks, and had been asked with his wife to a few bridal dinner-parties, given chiefly by friends of the de Courcy family.  Except on such occasions he never passed an evening out of his own house, and had not yet, since his marriage, dined once away from his wife.  He told himself that his good conduct in this respect was the result of his own resolution; but, nevertheless, he felt that there was nothing else left for him to do.  Nobody asked him to go to the theatre.  Nobody begged him to drop in of an evening.  Men never asked him why he did not play a rubber.  He would generally saunter into Sebright’s after he left his office, and lounge about the room for half an hour, talking to a few men.  Nobody was uncivil to him.  But he knew that the whole thing was changed, and he resolved, with some wisdom, to accommodate himself to his altered circumstances.

Lady Alexandrina also found her new life rather dull, and was sometimes inclined to be a little querulous.  She would tell her husband that she never got out, and would declare, when he offered to walk with her, that she did not care for walking in the streets.  “I don’t exactly see, then, where you are to walk,” he once replied.  She did not tell him that she was fond of riding, and that the Park was a very fitting place for such exercise; but she looked it, and he understood her.  “I’ll do all I can for her,” he said to himself; “but I’ll not ruin myself.”  “Amelia is coming to take me for a drive,” she said another time.  “Ah, that’ll be very nice,” he answered.  “No; it won’t be very nice,” said Alexandrina.  “Amelia is always shopping and bargaining with the tradespeople.  But it will be better than being kept in the house without ever stirring out.”

They breakfasted nominally at half-past nine; in truth, it was always nearly ten, as Lady Alexandrina found it difficult to get herself out of her room.  At half-past ten punctually he left his house for his office.  He usually got home by six, and then spent the greatest part of the hour before dinner in the ceremony of dressing.  He went, at least, into his dressing-room, after speaking a few words to his wife:  and there remained pulling things about, clipping his nails, looking over any paper that came in his way, and killing the time.  He expected his dinner punctually at seven, and began to feel a little cross if he were kept waiting.  After dinner, he drank one glass of wine in company with his wife, and one other by himself, during which latter ceremony he would stare at the hot coals, and think of the