She had the tact also
to encourage him to go out of an evening whenever he had a mind,
without in the least caring that he should take her too- and this
suited Ernest very well. He was, I should say, much happier in his
married life than people generally are.
At first it had been very painful to him to meet any of his old
friends, as he sometimes accidentally did, but this soon passed;
either they cut him, or he cut them; it was not nice being cut for the
first time or two, but after that, it became rather pleasant than not,
and when he began to see that he was going ahead, he cared very little
what people might say about his antecedents. The ordeal is a painful
one, but if a man's moral and intellectual constitution is naturally
sound, there is nothing which will give him so much strength of
character as having been well cut.
It was easy for him to keep his expenditure down, for his tastes
were not luxurious. He liked theatres, outings into the country on a
Sunday, and tobacco, but he did not care for much else, except writing
and music. As for the usual run of concerts, he hated them. He
worshipped Handel; he liked Offenbach, and the airs that went about
the streets, but he cared for nothing between these two extremes.
Pages:
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558