Farron could be relentless, and she was not without a certain contemptuous obstinacy.

Yet such conflicts as these she had learned not to dread, but sometimes deliberately to precipitate, for they ended always in a deeper sense of unity, and, on her part, in a fresh sense of his supremacy.
If he had been like most of the men she knew, she would have assumed that something had gone wrong in business.

With her first husband she had always been able to read in his face as he entered the house the full history of his business day.

Sometimes she had felt that there was something insulting in the promptness of her inquiry, "Has anything gone wrong, Joe ?" But Severance had never appeared to feel the insult; only as time went on, had grown more and more ready, as her interest became more and more lackadaisical, to pour out the troubles and, much more rarely, the joys of his day.

One of the things she secretly admired most about Farron was his independence of her in such matters.