Ten Degrees Backward

by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler

I was amazed at the incapacity of the feminine mind to apprehend justice. "That is what I am trying to do," I replied; "and what you are abusing me for doing."

"Not at all. You are trying to make her happy apart from you: you are not trying to make yourself the principal factor in her happiness. You are blundering—as you have so often blundered—through too great unselfishness. You are standing aside for fear you should cast a shadow over her pleasure: and standing aside is not at all the proper attitude for a husband. If you'd been so set on standing aside, you should have stood aside altogether and not married her: but having married her, the time for standing aside has gone by."

Indignant as I was I could not help admiring Annabel's power of grasping a situation. In ordinary conversation she often appeared distraite—at times almost stupid; but when once her bed-rock of common sense was touched, her judgment was excellent.

"For my part, as you know," she continued inexorably, "I do not approve of old men marrying young wives. But if they do so, the wife must not take her own young way and leave the husband to take his old one. They must merge, and hit on a comfortable via media, or whatever it is called in Latin. You are letting Fay go her own way too much, Reggie: and mark my words—you will live to regret it."

"I don't agree with you," I said shortly, once more venting my righteous indignation on the smouldering logs in the great fire-place.

"Don't do that, Reggie," said Annabel in her most elder-sisterly tone: "you'll burn holes in the bottom of your boot, besides sending sparks all over the carpet. And I know I'm right, whether you agree with me or whether you don't. The first thing you have got to do is not to have Frank here so much. Let him go back to live with Mr. Blathwayte at the Rectory."

"I shall do nothing of the kind," I retorted angrily: "I couldn't very well send away Frank as long as you are living here! What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander: and my wife's brother has as much right here as my sister."

"What utter nonsense!" exclaimed Annabel; "there is no parallel between the two cases. This is my home: I have a right to be here; but Frank is only a guest partaking of your hospitality, and therefore has no claim to stay on longer than you choose."

This was more than I could stand. So as I did not want a final rupture with my sister, I strode out of the hall, and flung myself into the library. The fact that in my inmost heart I wanted Frank out of the house made me all the more determined not to send him.

For the first time in my life I was furious with Annabel. How dared she try to come between my wife and me?—I asked myself in my rage. Yet all the time my better self whispered to me that it was not fair to accuse Annabel of trying to separate us: according to her lights she was doing her best to keep us together.