Perhaps, had the autocratic mistress of Gillingham and its dependencies been better acquainted with the character of Cecil Vavasour, she might have hesitated longer ere she selected him as the partner of her life. With all her ambition, she yet required a husband who would understand _her_ character and enter into her views; and of this Mr. Vavasour soon showed himself to be incapable. Misled by the natural faith which we all are apt to place in our own individual judgment, Lady Millicent had discovered imaginary qualities in the man whom she had _honoured_ with her choice. Deceived by the extreme composure of manner and the gentle reserve which were among her kinsman’s outward characteristics, she had given him credit for an indolence of disposition which she rather approved of than regretted, and for an inborn pride of race calculated to assimilate satisfactorily with her own. They were married, and the Lady Millicent was not long in discovering to her _annoyance_--for hers was not a character to take a disappointment to _heart_--that she had made a fatal mistake. A better man, nor one possessed of a more conscientious spirit than that which dwelt in Cecil Vavasour, never walked the earth. That this was so, no one who boasted the slightest knowledge of character would long doubt. It might be, though that fact had yet to be decided, that the lawyer _manqué_ was not likely to be a distinguished man; but the most casual observer would have decided at once upon the impossibility of his being otherwise than an upright and a straightforward one. But for all this, and though Mr. Vavasour proved to be, in the broad and usual acceptation of the term, an excellent husband, Lady Millicent was, and withal showed herself to be, bitterly and hopelessly disappointed. It was terrible to find that, instead of sympathising in her ambitious desires, Cecil was content to devote himself to the cultivation of his understanding, the care of his wife’s extensive property, the amelioration of the condition of the poor, and later, as the--to him--exceeding blessing of children was granted to his hopes, to the education and moral training of his sons and daughters. _At_ every time and season, and _to_ all the occupations and interests of her husband, Lady Millicent took marked exception. She had expected to find him an amiable nonentity, and instead, there was ever at her side an earnest and highly intelligent companion; one too who, although he was no rival power ready to edge her off the throne she so dearly prized, was nevertheless a man who, entertaining both stern and exalted notions of the responsibilities of the rich, was not easily to be diverted from the line of duty--often narrow and difficult--which he had marked out for himself to follow. Under the vexatiousness of this tardy discovery, Lady Millicent daily fumed and fretted--fumed and fretted till her temper, never one of the best, grew peevish and easy of