The Price of Willful Blindness — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Four months of marriage force Helen to admit what courtship hid. Writing in February 1822 at Grassdale Manor, she opens her diary after Arthur has gone hunting and asks whether she regrets marrying him. She answers no, yet confesses that full knowledge beforehand might have stopped love or duty; now her task is to cleave to him. He is fond to the point of smothering, but she fears his affection burns like dry twigs, bright and quick. Selfishness shows first on their bridal tour: he rushes her through France and Italy, resents her interest in anything outside himself, and hurries home to keep her "naïve" while admitting other women in Paris and Rome would resent seeing him with a wife.

Home brings a deeper shock. Walking back from church on a frosty Sunday, Arthur tells her she is "too religious," jealous that she prayed instead of watching him. Helen replies that her heart belongs to God first and that the more he loved his Maker the better he would love her; he laughs, kisses her hand, and jokes about lacking the skull for sainthood. She answers with a serious plea: he has talents and could be a good Christian without ceasing to be merry. He responds with a fable of eating today's feast and letting tomorrow fend for itself. Helen counters with warnings about gluttony and judgment; he claims recent good behaviour and asks what more she wants. She wants changed thoughts, not merely changed actions. The chapter records early matrimonial love surviving the first clash between reforming faith and appetite.