Sink or Swim? , Volume II by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun

John Beacham tried very hard to believe that he rejoiced in his wife's / pleasure in the society of her new connections. Again and again he told / himself how well and delightful it was that not only the Bakers, above / him in position as they were, but Mrs. Colonel Norcott herself, a / personage and an heiress -- one, too, who _might_ very naturally have / looked coldly upon poor Honor -- had treated her from the first with a / consideration and regard as sincere as they were flattering. John was / well aware that the converse of this state of things would have / surprised no one; and often, reflecting on the mortification that / _might_ have been his wife's portion, he endeavoured to reconcile / himself to the deplorable fact that she had been removed, fatally, as he / felt, removed, from his sphere into another, and that from being the / light and joy of his fireside, Honor had been virtually translated to a / world in which _he_ had neither part nor interest. That the anxious man / was to a certain degree justified in this suspicion, no judge of / character who carefully watched that pretty Honor on her return to what / John had, alas! begun to call her duties, could have doubted; for, when / she did return, it was not very difficult to perceive that she was not / the same Honor who had left the Paddocks only eight short days before. / In what the change consisted, however, it would have been difficult to / say. She was as willing to oblige, as anxious to please, and as / sweet-tempered as before; but there could be traced a languor in her / movements, an occasional absence of mind from things present, and a / decided want of the _zest_ -- the spring of life and energy -- which, / previous to the fatal gala-day, had been conspicuous in the girl's half / Celtic character.

All this John, to whom she was far dearer than his own / life, noticed with a jealous and ever-growing irritation. With the / dangerous faith possessed by many of his sex in their own perceptive / powers, this man, so utterly in the dark regarding the complex machinery / of a woman's nature, decided at once that he knew what was the matter / with Honor. During that week -- that long miserable week -- that she had / been away from him, her father (how hard it was for John even in thought / to call the Colonel by that tender name! ) had amused himself, the farmer / feared, by initiating Honor into some of the wicked doings of the bad / world in which he lived. Of what should, or indeed _could_, such a man / talk, John Beacham said to himself, but of things of which a pure-minded / young woman had best know nothing about? What are people the better, he / went on to ask himself, for hearing what fashionable people are about in / London or in foreign parts? He was no Methodist, not he, and was all for / a little pleasure at odd times for everybody; but if Honor were to grow / discontented because she couldn't go about like a lady, and have a / lodging up in town sometimes, like Mrs. Kempshall, and go to the / theatres to learn all sorts of wickedness, why, he and Honor had better / come to an understanding. It was an awful threat, certainly, but one / which, perhaps unfortunately for Honor, was never carried into / execution. I say unfortunately, for at that time a little _stir_, even / the commonplace stir of an actual scolding, would have done Honor good.