After the sudden, untimely death of his wife, the wealthy Mr. Incoul proposes to Miss Maida Barhyte: “Marry me, and you will never want for anything again.” Young Maida, under pressure from her mother and facing a future as a housemaid, reluctantly agrees, on the condition that they live as though unmarried—as brother and sister would—until she feels they’ve each come into their own.

They wed on these terms and subsequently embark on a honeymoon across Europe. But just as Maida begins to adjust to this unconventional arrangement, the unexpected occurs: at a bullfight in Spain, a former lover resurfaces, vying for her attention once more. Mr. Incoul remains blissfully unaware of this development. Or does he?

In Mr. Incoul’s Misadventure , his first published work of fiction, Edgar Saltus eruditely applies the biting pessimism that he previously studied in his philosophical works The Philosophy of Disenchantment and The Anatomy of Negation .