He seemed, indeed, to grow less and less inclined, as
time advanced, for the trip to Normandy; and wrote excuse after
excuse to his sisters, when letters arrived from them urging him
to pay the promised visit. In the winter-time, he said he would
not allow his wife to risk a long journey. In the spring, his
health was pronounced to be delicate. In the genial summer-time,
the accomplishment of the proposed visit would be impossible, for
at that period the baroness expected to become a mother. Such
were the apologies which Franval seemed almost glad to be able to
send to his sisters in France.
The marriage was, in the strictest sense of the term, a happy
one. The baron, though he never altogether lost the strange
restraint and reserve of his manner, was, in his quiet, peculiar
way, the fondest and kindest of husbands. He went to town
occasionally on business, but always seemed glad to return to the
baroness; he never varied in the politeness of his bearing toward
his wife's sister; he behaved with the most courteous hospitality
toward all the friends of the Welwyns; in short, he thoroughly
justified the good opinion which Rosamond and her father had
formed of him when they first met at Paris. And yet no experience
of his character thoroughly re-assured Ida. Months passed on
quietly and pleasantly; and still that secret sadness, that
indefinable, unreasonable apprehension on Rosamond's account,
hung heavily on her sister's heart.
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