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avoid the inevitable marriage issue. So he was rather pleased that she had selected someone as comfortable as Diana, a girl he had known all his life, and someone so accustomed to a quiet existence in the country that she was unlikely to demand that he take her to town.
    Nor had Diana objected. She had always liked Ferdie, for who could not enjoy being around a person so determined to take pleasure from life? If he did not possess the intelligence of the Marquess of Buckland, he was at least better acquainted with worldly affairs. Diana had never had any friends other than her father, and certainly Ferdie, amiable fellow that he was, paid more attention to her than her abstracted parent ever had. Completely unaware of the existence of such things as novels from the circulating library, she had never cherished any hopes of falling in love. The hope of added companionship and the freedom from financial worry that life with Ferdie would bring offered a pleasant change from her lonely existence at Buckland. At first, Diana had enjoyed herself thoroughly. She quite delighted in having Ferdie's mother and younger sister to talk to, so much that Ferdie's frequent absences in town or at race meetings did not distress her, while the prospect of waking up every morning in a place where everything was not crying out for repair was delightful.
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    The Willful Widow
    by Evelyn Richardson
    Diana would have been more than content to spend her days in the country, but her mother-in-law would not hear of it. Within six months of her marriage, the young viscountess was being introduced to the ton, which, confronted with an attractive newcomer who was already married and thus posed no threat to eligible bachelors or matchmaking mamas, welcomed her graciously.
    For her part, Diana was less impressed with the Upper Ten Thousand then they were with her. After a life spent pursuing her own interests, she found much of the fashionable routine both constricting and dull. One ball or rout was so very much like another, and the latest on-dit so very similar to the last. But she kept these opinions to herself so well that no one could ever have suspected her of harboring such seditious thoughts.
    Besides, there were definite compensations for having left the country. She attended the theater and the opera so frequently that Ferdie was heard to complain in his goodnatured way, "Don't see what there is to like in a bunch of fellows standing onstage screaming their heads off. You won't catch me listening to it, but if it pleases you, go all you like." In fact, Ferdie had been pleasantly surprised at his biddable bride. She was less demanding than his mother, and could always be counted upon to make excuses for him if a riotous evening left him a bit under the weather the next day. She was a taking thing and well liked by everyone, a fact which he could see had elevated his consequence even among his sporting friends. All in all, it was quite agreeable to have someone watching out for one and making sure that life 35
    The Willful Widow
    by Evelyn Richardson
    was comfortable as Diana did. His mother always made him feel guiltily aware of his shortcomings—a tendency to play deep and to bet on anything and everything—but his wife never did, nor did she ever hint in the slightest way that she would have appreciated more than the occasional escort he offered her to some of the ton functions. All in all, Ferdie couldn't remember when life had been so pleasant. If only he could hit a winning streak to pay back some of the money he owed, but he felt certain that his luck was bound to change sooner or later.
    On her side, Diana, though not as pleased as Ferdie, was well satisfied. Having looked after one helpless male for most of her life, she moved easily into taking care of another. He was far more companionable than her father, whom she now saw so rarely that when he succumbed to pleurisy a year after Diana's marriage, she hardly knew he was gone. And in many