I never heard from either an expression denoting that each felt an interest in the other's individual life; neither was there any of that conjugal freemasonry which bores one so to witness.

But Alice was not unhappy.
Her ideas of love ended with marriage; what came afterward--children, housekeeping, and the claims of society--sufficed her needs.

If she had any surplus of feeling it was expended upon her children, who had much from her already, for she was devoted and indulgent to them.
In their management she allowed no interference, on this point only thwarting her husband.

In one respect she and Charles harmonized; both were worldly, and in all the material of living there was sympathy.
Their relation was no unhappiness to him; he thought, I dare say, if he thought at all, that it was a natural one.

The men of his acquaintance called him a lucky man, for Alice was handsome, kind-hearted, intelligent, and popular.
Whether Cousin Alice would have found it difficult to fulfill the promise she made mother regarding me, if I had been a plain, unnoticeable girl, I cannot say, or whether her anxiety that I should make an agreeable impression would have continued beyond a few days.
She looked after my dress and my acquaintances.