harriet e. p. spofford

An amazingly sad and beatiful love story about Ordronnaux, a young man who falls in love with, and marries, an exceptionally beautiful girl, knowing that she has no love in return for his. Having had no patience to win her affection before their marriage, Ordronnaux fervently hopes, and tries by all means at his disposal, to make his wife happy and to deserve her love in the intimacy of their married life. But conscious of having sold her beauty for a comfortable life in wealth, Emilia endeavours to fulfil the duties of a wife, all the time despising and almost hating her husband for having bought her life. Half a year of polite but icy home atmosphere later, Ordronnaux wakes up one morning, after a short but severe illness, to find his love for his untouchable wife gone. At the same time, Emilia, being lonely and without friends, finds relief for her mental distress in the correspondence with a remote unknown male friend …