Thomas Hardy

Wessex Tales Thomas Hardy

When William Marchmill had finished his inquiries for lodgings at a well-known watering-place inUpper Wessex, he returned to the hotel to find his wife. She, with the children, had rambled alongthe shore, and Marchmill followed in the direction indicated by the military-looking hall-porter'By Jove, how far you've gone! I am quite out of breath, ' Marchmill said, rather impatiently, when hecame up with his wife, who was reading as she walked, the three children being considerably furtherahead with the nurse. Mrs. Marchmill started out of the reverie into which the book had thrown her. 'Yes, ' she said, 'you've been such a long time. I was tired of staying in that dreary hotel. But I am sorry if you havewanted me, Will?''Well, I have had trouble to suit myself. When you see the airy and comfortable rooms heard of, youfind they are stuffy and uncomfortable. Will you come and see if what I've fixed on will do? There isnot much room, I am afraid; hut I can light on nothing better. The town is rather full.'The pair left the children and nurse to continue their ramble, and went back together. In age well-balanced, in personal appearance fairly matched, and in domestic requirementsconformable, in temper this couple differed, though even here they did not often clash, he beingequable, if not lymphatic, and she decidedly nervous and sanguine. It was to their tastes and fancies, those smallest, greatest particulars, that no common denominator could be applied. Marchmillconsidered his wife's likes and inclinations somewhat silly; she considered his sordid and material. The husband's business was that of a gunmaker in a thriving city northwards, and his soul was inthat business always; the lady was best characterized by that superannuated phrase of elegance 'avotary of the muse.' An impressionable, palpitating creature was Ella, shrinking humanely fromdetailed knowledge of her husband's trade whenever she reflected that everything he manufacturedhad for its purpose the destruction of life. She could only recover her equanimity by assuring herselfthat some, at least, of his weapons were sooner or later used for the extermination of horrid verminand animals almost as cruel to their inferiors in species as human beings were to theirs. She had never antecedently regarded this occupation of his as any objection to having him for ahusband. Indeed, the necessity of getting life-leased at all cost, a cardinal virtue which all goodmothers teach, kept her from thinking of it at all till she had closed with William, had passed thehoneymoon, and reached the reflecting stage. Then, like a person who has stumbled upon someobject in the dark, she wondered what she had got; mentally walked round it, estimated it; whether itwere rare or common; contained gold, silver, or lead; were a clog or a pedestal, everything to her ornoth