She was a
plain-faced old woman, without graces and without any great
elegance, but with an extreme respect for her own motives. She was
usually prepared to explain these- when the explanation was asked as a
favour; and in such a case they proved totally different from those
that had been attributed to her. She was virtually separated from
her husband, but she appeared to perceive nothing irregular in the
situation. It had become clear, at an early stage of their
community, that they should never desire the same thing at the same
moment, and this appearance had prompted her to rescue disagreement
from the vulgar realm of accident. She did what she could to erect
it into a law- a much more edifying aspect of it- by going to live
in Florence, where she bought a house and established herself; and
by leaving her husband to take care of the English branch of his bank.
This arrangement greatly pleased her; it was so felicitously definite.
It struck her husband in the same light, in a foggy square in
London, where it was at times the most definite fact he discerned; but
he would have preferred that such unnatural things should have a
greater vagueness.
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