He came back with the tumbler charged to the brim and drank deeply from it with relish.
"That's better," he said, and with a grin he turned his attention to his wife, fixing her with his eyes, gloating over her like some great snake over a bird trembling on the floor of its cage.

The courses followed one upon the other and while he ate he baited her for his amusement.

She took refuge in silence but he forced her to talk and then shivered with ridicule everything she said.

Stella was cowed by him.

If she answered it was probably some small commonplace which with an exaggerated politeness he would nag at her to repeat.