But he had
to pass his examinations in mining first, and that would take
him,--including the journey abroad--ten years. Ten years!
He returned to the University. In the summer he came back to the
vicarage and found her every bit as beautiful. Three summers he
came--and the fourth time she was pale. There were tiny red lines in
the corners of her nose and her shoulders drooped a little. When the
summer returned for the sixth time, she was taking iron. In the
seventh she went to a watering-place. In the eighth she suffered from
tooth-ache and her nerves were out of order. Her hair had lost its
gloss, her voice had grown shrill, her nose was covered with little
black specks; she had lost her figure, dragged her feet, and her
cheeks were hollow. In the winter she had an attack of nervous fever,
and her hair had to be cut off. When it grew again, it was a dull
brown. He had fallen in love with a golden-haired girl of fourteen
--brunettes did not attract him--and he married a woman of twenty-four,
with dull brown hair, who refused to wear her dresses open at the
throat.
But in spite of all this he loved her. His love was less passionate
than it had been; it had become calm and steadfast. And there was
nothing in the little mining-town which could disturb their happiness.
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