Her wealth--that was so little in comparison with the richness of her nature--had been his; and yet his vast egotism took it all as his right, and she was repaid in a kind of tyranny, the more galling and cruel because it was wielded by a man of intellect and culture, and ancient name and tradition.

If he had been warned that he was losing his wife's love, he would have scouted the idea, his self-assurance was so strong, his vanity complete.

If, however, he had been told that another man was thinking of his wife, he would have believed it, as he believed now that David had done; and he cherished that belief, and let resentment grow.

He was the Earl of Eglington, and no matter what reputation David had reached, he was still a member of a Quaker trader's family, with an origin slightly touched with scandal.
Another resentment, however, was steadily rising in him.

It galled him that Hylda should take so powerful an interest in David's work in Egypt; and he knew now that she had always done so.