Here she cast a deprecating glance towards her own very prettily embroidered muslin curtains, which probably cost about a hundredth part of that sum. Soon after, the newly married pair arose to go, the doctor feeling, in spite of himself, a little uncomfortable, though at what he hardly knew; for he would not acknowledge to himself that he was at all disappointed because Dell’s uncle was a tailor instead of a millionaire, or because Rose’s uncle lived on Beacon street, and sported curtains which cost a thousand dollars. This did not in the least affect Dell. _She_ was his wife, and as such he would love and cherish her, ministering as far as possible to her wants, and overlooking the faults which he knew she possessed. Thus reasoned his better nature as he rode home, unconscious that the object of his thoughts was at that very moment misconstruing his silence into disappointment, and writing against him bitter things in her heart. It was a peculiarity of Dell’s to get angry when people least expected it, and then to _sulk_ until such time as she saw fit to be gracious; so when they reached the Tremont, the doctor was astonished to find her _past speaking_; neither could he by any amount of coaxing elicit a word from her for more than an hour. At the end of that time, however, her pent-up wrath exploded; and, in angry tones, she accused him of feeling sorry that he had married her, because her uncle didn’t prove to be a great man as he had supposed. “I saw it all in your face when we were in the omnibus,” said she; “it is of no use for you to deny it,” adding, as she burst into tears, “but you cannot regret _your_ marriage more than I do mine, and you needn’t feel so smart either, for your father was a poor shoemaker in Maine, and when you went to college you rang the bell in part payment of your tuition.” This was a phase of married life for which the doctor was wholly unprepared, and during the first part of his wife’s speech he stood confounded, but by the time she had finished, his mind was pretty well made up to _box her ears_! This, however, he did not do, though he bade her “shut up her head,” repenting the harsh words the moment they were uttered, and having manliness enough to tell her so. Winding his arm around her, he talked to her calmly and rationally until she came out of her pet, and agreed “to make up.” This process we leave to the imagination of the reader, only suggesting that no one who saw the handsome, loving pair, which half an hour after went down to dinner, would have dreamed of the dark cloud which had so recently lowered on their matrimonial horizon. * * * * *