What would they think of him for leading such a life at Pilar's side, in her house?
She had children who would some day sit in judgment upon her conduct and his.

And how did he stand in the eyes of the servants and the visitors whose acquaintance Pilar had forced upon him?
If at least she would give up her outside circle of friends! But that she either could not or would not do, and so brought ill-natured witnesses of their relations to the house, and Wilhelm must needs accommodate himself to an intercourse with second-rate people who inevitably form the set of a woman whose domestic circumstances are not clearly, or rather all too clearly defined.

And before these people, who appeared to him greatly inferior to himself, both morally and intellectually, he was forced to cast down his eyes.

Reflect as he might upon the situation, the result was always the same--it must be put to an end to.

But how?
There remained always the possibility that her husband might die and she be thus free to marry him.