The opinion I formed of Mrs. Melville was that she was an exceedingly superficial woman, with no resource within herself. She liked excitement and frivolity, and a quiet country existence had no charm for her.
If we now consider all these things—the lady’s antecedents, her temperament, her small-mindedness, and the sense of disappointment under which she laboured—we can readily understand that the Colonel’s married life was not without its dark and thorny side. She was, as I have said, an exceedingly pretty woman physically. By this I wish to convey that she lacked prettiness of mind. Her face was expressionless in a sense, her blue eyes cold and suggestive of hardness of heart. She gave me the impression of being a deceitful woman, with a great deal of cunning in her nature. She did not
