" For Mrs. Gisburn--as such--had not existed
till nearly a year after Jack's resolve had been taken. It might be
that he had married her--since he liked his ease--because he didn't
want to go on painting; but it would have been hard to prove that he
had given up his painting because he had married her.
Of course, if she had not dragged him down, she had equally, as Miss
Croft contended, failed to "lift him up"--she had not led him back
to the easel. To put the brush into his hand again--what a vocation
for a wife! But Mrs. Gisburn appeared to have disdained it--and I
felt it might be interesting to find out why.
The desultory life of the Riviera lends itself to such purely
academic speculations; and having, on my way to Monte Carlo, caught
a glimpse of Jack's balustraded terraces between the pines, I had
myself borne thither the next day.
I found the couple at tea beneath their palm-trees; and Mrs.
Gisburn's welcome was so genial that, in the ensuing weeks, I
claimed it frequently. It was not that my hostess was "interesting":
on that point I could have given Miss Croft the fullest reassurance.
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