After this she scarcely desired him.

And, standing more aloof from him, not feeling him so much part of herself, but merely part of her circumstances, she did not mind so much what he did, could leave him alone.
There was the halt, the wistfulness about the ensuing year, which is like autumn in a man's life.

His wife was casting him off, half regretfully, but relentlessly; casting him off and turning now for love and life to the children.

Henceforward he was more or less a husk.

And he himself acquiesced, as so many men do, yielding their place to their children.
During his recuperation, when it was really over between them, both made an effort to come back somewhat to the old relationship of the first months of their marriage.