Margaret was three generations away from self-reliance.

Craig's speech sounded like a deliberate insult, deliberate attempt to precipitate a quarrel, an estrangement.

There had been nothing in her training to prepare her for such a rude, courage-testing event as that.
"Do you remember--it was the day we married--the talk we had about my relatives ?" She colored, was painfully embarrassed, strove in vain to conceal it.
"About your relatives ?" she said inquiringly.
He made an impatient gesture.

"I know you remember.

Well, if I had been a gentleman, or had known what gentleman meant, I'd never have said--or, rather, looked what I did then.