It was only natural for him to think this.

Ever since the beginning, men have assigned to women the role of the dissuader, the drag, the hinderer.

It is always the woman, tradition tells us, who persuades the man to be a coward, to stay at home, to shirk a difficult or a dangerous duty.
As a matter of fact, Turner had made this mistake.

He had always wondered why Miriam Liston elected to live at Farlingford when with her wealth and connections, both in England and France, she might live a gayer life elsewhere.

There must, he reflected, be some reason for it.
When whosoever does anything slightly unconventional or leaves undone what custom and gossip make almost obligatory, a relation or a mere interfering neighbour is always at hand to wag her head and say there must be some reason for it.