COUNT RUMFOKD. 149 



to his daughter, as a family secret, that he is * not at 

 all sure that two certain persons were not wholly mis- 

 taken in their marriage *as to each other's charac- 

 ter.' The denouement hastened; and on the first 

 anniversary of his marriage he writes thus to his 

 daughter: 'My dear child, This being the first year's 

 anniversary of my marriage, from what I wrote two 

 months after it you will be curious to know how things 

 stand at present. I am sorry to say that experience 

 only serves to confirm me in the belief that in charac- 

 ter and natural propensities Madame de Kumford and 

 myself are totally unlike, and never ought to have 

 thought of marrying. We are, besides, both too in- 

 dependent in our sentiments and habits of life to 

 live peaceably together she having been mistress all 

 her days of her actions, and I, with no less liberty, 

 leading for the most part the life of a bachelor. Very 

 likely she is as much disaffected towards me as I am 

 towards her. Little it matters with me, but I call her 

 a female dragon simply by that gentle name I We 

 have got to the pitch of my insisting on one thing and 

 she on another.' 



On the second anniversary of his marriage, matters 

 were worse. The quarrels between him and Madame 

 had become more violent and open, and having used 

 the word quarrels to his daughter, he gives the follow- 

 ing sample of them : c I am almost afraid to tell you 

 the story, my good child, lest in future you should not 

 be good ; lest what I am about relating should set you 

 a bad example, make you passionate, and so on. But 

 I had been made very angry. A large party had been 

 invited I neither liked nor approved of, and invited for 

 the sole purpose of vexing me. Our house being in 

 the centre of the garden, walled around, with iron 

 gates, I put on my hat, walked down to the porter's 



