Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/20

part, people were occupied only with chatter, but the disunited couple had at last grounds for expecting a period of high activity. They girded their loins; they felt as if the quarrel had only begun. They felt indeed more married than ever, inasmuch as what marriage had mainly suggested to them was the high opportunity to quarrel. There had been "sides" before, and there were sides as much as ever; for the sider, too, the prospect opened out, taking the pleasant form of a superabundance of matter for desultory conversation. The many friends of the Faranges drew together to differ about them—contradiction grew young again over teacups and cigars. Everybody was always assuring everybody of something very shocking, and nobody would have been jolly if nobody had been outrageous. The pair appeared to have a social attraction which failed merely as regards each other. It was indeed a great deal to be able to say for Ida that no one but Beale desired her blood; and for Beale that if he should ever have his eyes scratched out it would be only by his wife. It was generally felt, to begin with, that they were awfully good-looking; they had really not been analyzed to a deeper