Bella and Archibald McCandless’s courtship and marriage

Bella Baxter and Archibald McCandless’s courtship and marriage turn a meeting arranged for Godwin Baxter’s convenience into a lasting partnership. Bella initially imagines McCandless as a husband who would help her while leaving her free to remain close to Godwin; instead, their first kiss gives her a new understanding of her own desire, and she accepts McCandless’s proposal. The marriage later accommodates both family life and Bella’s medical work, which she continues through three pregnancies.

The Meeting in West End Park

After Bella and Godwin return to Glasgow from a world tour, they encounter McCandless again while walking by the memorial fountain in West End Park. Godwin sits on a bench, says he needs a rest, and asks McCandless to take Bella for a walk. Bella, who has become demanding of Godwin’s time, later recognizes that he wanted some peace. At the time, however, she imagines he may be introducing her to a man who could help her do as she wished without separating her from Godwin.

As they walk arm-in-arm through the shrubberies, McCandless tells Bella about his poor childhood, his success as a medical student, and his work as a house doctor at the Royal Infirmary. She pauses to look at him more closely. He kisses her, shyly at first and then with ardour; Bella has never before been kissed by a man. She is surprised by the pleasure she feels and, when they part, regards him with an emotion approaching respect.

Proposal and Reversal

Bella’s earlier amorous experience had been a relationship with her piano teacher in Lausanne. She had loved the woman, but turned against her because the woman loved too many others for Bella’s taste. The kiss with McCandless therefore marks a change in Bella’s experience of intimacy: she discovers that she can take pleasure in him, rather than merely treating him as a possible means of securing a life organized around Godwin.

When McCandless proposes, Bella agrees and says, “Let us tell God at once.” She assumes Godwin will welcome the arrangement because McCandless will give her companionship and allow Godwin more privacy. Her interpretation is mistaken. Godwin nearly faints at the news and asks the couple to consider the matter for at least a fortnight before making up their minds. Bella and McCandless agree to wait, bringing Godwin’s distress and Bella’s confidence into direct contrast without undoing her acceptance of the proposal.

Marriage and Family Life

The later account establishes that Bella and McCandless do marry. Between 1892 and 1898, Bella bears three sons at two-year intervals, while continuing her clinical work until the final two or three days of each pregnancy and returning to it very soon afterward. She explains this practice by comparison with the poor women she treats, who cannot afford to stop working; she also credits McCandless with supporting her, calling him a very good wife in her husband.

The marriage is thus presented not only through courtship and domestic attachment but through the practical conditions of Bella’s working life. Childbearing does not end her clinical practice, and her account links her ability to continue it to both economic inequality and her husband’s contribution at home. The first meeting’s mistaken expectation—that a husband might fit around Bella’s bond with Godwin—gives way to a partnership described in terms of shared family and work.