He had only to say a word and they would all come and sit silently in their night vestments on the hard, cold ground of his compound and listen, as long as he wished to go on explaining to them from the top of the stairs, how great and good he was.

They would.
However, his wife would do--for to-night.
His wife! He winced inwardly.

A dismal woman with startled eyes and dolorously drooping mouth, that would listen to him in pained wonder and mute stillness.

She was used to those night-discourses now.

She had rebelled once--at the beginning.