"I should like to know when I am to find time to mention the
contents of every letter I write," said Lord Marney;
"particularly with all the vexatious business I have had on my
hands to-day. But so it is; the more one tries to save you
trouble, the more discontented you get."

"No, not discontented, George."

"I do not know what you call discontented; but when a man has
made every possible arrangement to please you and every body,
and all his plans are to be set aside merely because the day
he has fixed on does not exactly suit your fancy, if that be
not discontent, I should like very much to know what is,
Arabella."

Lady Marney did not reply. Always sacrificed, always
yielding, the moment she attempted to express an opinion, she
ever seemed to assume the position not of the injured but the
injurer.

Arabella was a woman of abilities, which she had cultivated.
She had excellent sense, and possessed many admirable
qualities; she was far from being devoid of sensibility; but
her sweet temper shrank from controversy, and Nature had not
endowed her with a spirit which could direct and control. She
yielded without a struggle to the arbitrary will and
unreasonable caprice of a husband, who was scarcely her equal
in intellect, and far her inferior in all the genial qualities
of our nature, but who governed her by his iron selfishness.