CHAPTER II.
“Some hope a lover by their faults to win,
As spots on ermine beautify the skin.”
When Griselda thought that her husband had long enough enjoyed his new existence, and that there was danger of his forgetting the taste of sorrow, she changed her tone.—One day, when he had not returned home exactly at the appointed minute, she received him with a frown,—such as would have made even Mars himself recoil, if Mars could have beheld such a frown upon the brow of his Venus.
“Dinner has been kept waiting for you this hour, my dear.”
“I am very sorry for it; but why did you wait, my dear? I am really very sorry I am so late, but (looking at his watch) it is only half past six by me.”
“It is seven by me.”
They presented their watches to each other; he, in an apologetical, she, in a reproachful attitude.
“I rather think you are too fast, my dear,” said the gentleman.
“I am very sure you are too slow, my dear,” said the lady.
“My watch never loses a minute in the four-and-twenty hours,” said he.