The futile endeavour to act with decision, to carry Monica away into Somerset, resulted, as futile efforts of that kind are wont to do, in increased feebleness of the will; he was less capable than ever of exerting the authority which he still believed himself to keep for the last resort.

Occasionally some days went by without his leaving the house.

Instead of the one daily newspaper he had been used to take he now received three; after breakfast he sometimes spent a couple of hours over the _Times_, and the evening papers often occupied him from dinner to bedtime.

Monica noticed, with a painful conflict of emotions, that his hair had begun to lose its uniform colour, and to show streaks that matched with his grizzled beard.

Was _she_ responsible for this?
On the Saturday when she was to visit the Bevises she feared lest he should propose to go with her.