And die he did, a few days later, as the sun was going down behind the garden-wall. Her harshness seemed to come trebly home to her then, and she remorsefully exclaimed against herself in secret and alone. Her one desire now was to erect some tribute to his memory, without its being recognized as her handiwork. In the completion of this scheme there arrived a few months later a handsome stained-glass window for the church; and when it was unpacked and in course of erection Lord Icenway strolled into the building with his wife.
‘“Erected to his memory by his grieving widow,”’ he said, reading the legend on the glass. ‘I didn’t know that he had a wife; I’ve never seen her.’
‘Oh yes, you must have, Icenway; only you forget,’ replied his lady blandly. ‘But she didn’t live with him, and was seldom seen visiting him, because there were differences between them; which, as is usually the case, makes her all the more sorry now.’
‘And go ruining herself by this expensive ruby-and-azure glass-design.’
‘She is not poor, they say.’
As Lord Icenway grew older he became crustier and crustier, and whenever he set eyes on his wife’s boy by her other husband he would burst out morosely, saying,
‘’Tis a very odd thing, my lady, that you could oblige your first husband, and couldn’t oblige me.’
‘Ah! if I had only thought of it sooner!’ she murmured.
‘What?’ said he.
‘Nothing, dearest,’ replied Lady Icenway.