The Severances had been eager for the marriage, naturally.

Mr.Lanley could still see the young couple as they turned from the altar, young, beautiful, and confident.
He had missed his daughter terribly, not only her physical presence in the house, but the exercise of his influence over her, which in old times had been perhaps a trifle autocratic.

He had hated being told what Joe thought and said; yet he could hardly object to her docility.

That was the way he had brought her up.

He did not reckon pliancy in a woman as a weakness; or if he had had any temptation to do so, it had vanished in the period when Joe Severance had taken to drink.