But, in the meanwhile, she did not neglect the duty which the belief she had abandoned serves to inculcate,--"She set her house in order." The cold and penurious elegance that had characterized the Casino disappeared like enchantment,--that is, the elegance remained, but the cold and penury fled before the smile of woman.

Like Puss-in-Boots, after the nuptials of his master, Jackeymo only now caught minnows and sticklebacks for his own amusement.

Jackeymo looked much plumper, and so did Riccabocca.

In a word, the fair Jemima became an excellent wife.
Riccabocca secretly thought her extravagant, but, like a wise man, declined to look at the house bills, and ate his joint in unreproachful silence.
Indeed there was so much unaffected kindness in the nature of Mrs.
Riccabocca--beneath the quiet of her manner there beat so genially the heart of the Hazeldeans--that she fairly justified the favourable anticipations of Mrs.Dale.And though the doctor did not noisily boast of his felicity, nor, as some new married folks do, thrust it insultingly under the nimis unctis naribus,--the turned-up noses of your surly old married folks,--nor force it gaudily and glaringly on the envious eyes of the single, you might still see that he was a more cheerful and light-hearted man than before.

His smile was less ironical, his politeness less distant.