regard his lot with complacency.  Especially as to all appearances, this was the sort of thing Selma liked, also.  Presently, perhaps, there would be a baby, and then their cup of domestic happiness would be overflowing.  Babcock’s long ungratified yearning for the things of the spirit were fully met by these cosey evenings, which he would have been glad to continue to the crack of doom.  To smoke and sprawl and read a little, and exchange chit-chat, was poetry enough for him.  So contented was he that his joy was apt to find an outlet in ditties and whistling—­he possessed a slightly tuneful, rollicking knack at both—­a proceeding which commonly culminated in his causing Selma to sit beside him on the sofa and be made much of, to the detriment of her toilette.

As for the bride, so dazing were the circumstances incident to the double change of matrimony and adaptation to city life, that her judgment was in suspension.  Yet though she smiled and sewed demurely, she was thinking.  The yellow clapboarded house and metal stag, and a maid-of-all-work at her beck and call, were gratifying at the outset and made demands upon her energies.  Selma’s position in her father’s house had been chiefly ornamental and social.  She had been his companion and nurse, had read to him and argued with him, but the mere household work had been performed by an elderly female relative who recognized that her mind was bent on higher things.  Nevertheless, she had never doubted that when the time arrived to show her capacity as a housewife, she would be more than equal to the emergency.  Assuredly she would, for one of the distinguishing traits of American womanhood was the ability to perform admirably with one’s own hand many menial duties and yet be prepared to shine socially with the best.  Still the experience was not quite so easy as she expected; even harassing and mortifying.  Fortunately, Lewis was more particular about quantity than quality where the table was concerned; and, after all, food and domestic details were secondary considerations in a noble outlook.  It would have suited her never to be obliged to eat, and to be able to leave the care of the house to the hired girl; but that being out of the question, it became incumbent on her to make those obligations as simple as possible.  However, the possession of a new house and gay fittings was an agreeable realization.  At home everything had been upholstered in black horse-hair, and regard for material appearances had been obscured for her by the tension of her introspective tendencies.  Lewis was very kind, and she had no reason to reproach herself as yet for her choice.  He had insisted that she should provide herself with an ample and more stylish wardrobe, and though the invitation had interested her but mildly, the effect of shrewdly-made and neatly fitting garments on her figure had been a revelation.  Like the touch of a man’s hand, fine raiment had seemed to her hitherto almost repellant, but it was obvious now that anything which