Her pride prevented her from talking of it; but the soreness of her grievance invaded their whole relation.

And in her moral unrest she showed faults which had been scarcely visible in their early married years--impatience, temper, suspicion, a readiness to magnify small troubles whether of health or circumstance.
During her months alone she had been reading many novels of an indifferent sort, which the carrier brought her from the lending library at Windermere.

She talked excitedly of some of them, had 'cried her eyes out' over this or that.

Fenwick picked up one or two, and threw them away for 'trash.' He scornfully thought that they had done her harm, made her more nervous and difficult.

But at night, when he had done his work, he never took any trouble to read to her, or to talk to her about other than household things.