She rested her elbows on the table, and her chin upon her hands, staring at him as though she did not see him, evidently in deep thought.

He bent over his papers, but was aware that her eyes were on him.

He glanced up nervously.
"Please do not look at me in that way.

You make me nervous," he said.
With a scornful half-laugh she rose from her seat.
"Good night," she said indifferently, and in her soft felt slippers she noiselessly went away.
She had not come in the expectation of help from her husband in anything that was to be done.

But besides the bond of fear by which they were drawn together, there was the feeling that his presence, especially in that room, brought before her vividly the necessity for action.
Under such pressure, an idea might come to her which would be worth having.