Having failed to marry

"Having failed to marry Stephen . . ."

That was the start of the precis of the episode that was on the radio and it puzzled me. It's a weird thing to say I think. How exactly did she fail? 

Was she a wicked temptress who had tried to ensnare Stephen only to have him find out and refuse to marry her?

The story is A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy, and I've just googled some synopses, which suggest the reason she didn't marry Stephen was either  a case of cold feet or the disapproval of her father. I wouldn't see either of those as failure on her part.  

Perhaps I need to get a life and not stress about word usage.

I've just begun reading Murder Mindfully, which has one of the best openings. 

First off, I'm not a violent man. Quite the opposite, For example, I've never once gotten into a fight. And I didn't even kill anyone until I was forty-two.

So this busy lawyer is given an ultimatum: he has to sort out his work life balance or his wife will leave him taking their daughter with her. So he goes to mindfulness classes.

I managed to get a last minute 'squeezed me in' hair appointment this morning. The realisation that after three weeks holiday my hair would be, well, a disaster spurred me on. So I am sitting in the chair having my hair coloured feeling as tense as having my hair done always makes me and I thought I'd try some mindfulness breathing exercises. 

It must take a lot of practice. Impossible to cut out the music and other people's discussions - particularly when they're so fascinating. Stepping into the hair salon is like stepping into a different world. A world where people drink. A lot. The woman in the next chair was 42 (her son is 10 and she had him when she was 32) and she was preparing for her annual long weekend in Benidorm trip with three friends, where their main objective seemed to be drinking. I mean my hairdresser's in his early 50s and he still goes out with the boys and gets drunk.

I lead such a sheltered life. Thankfully.

From there it was back to Rough Edges for a final push at clearing. Nearly there.

And as it was before.