To her, as to him, they seemed to be close on a trial of strength.

If she could not influence him in this matter--so obvious, as it seemed to her, and so near to her heart--what was to become of that lead of hers in their married life, on which she had been reckoning from the beginning?
All that was worst in her and all that was best rose to the struggle.
But, as he did not speak, she looked up at last.
"I was waiting," he said in a low voice.
"What for ?" "Waiting till you should tell me you did not mean what you said." She saw that he was painfully moved; she also saw that he was introducing something into their relation, an element of proud self-assertion, which she had never felt in it before.

Her own vanity instantly rebelled.
"I ought not to have said exactly what I did," she said, almost stifled by her own excitement, and making great efforts not to play the mere wilful child; "that I admit.

But it has been clear to me from the beginning that--that"-- her words hurried, she took up a book and restlessly lifted it and let it fall--"you have never looked at this thing justly.

You have looked at the crime as any one must who is a landowner; you have never allowed for the provocation; you have not let yourself feel pity--" He made an exclamation.
"Do you know where I was before I went into the inquest ?" "No," she said defiantly, determined not to be impressed, feeling a childish irritation at the interruption.
"I was with Mrs.Westall.Harden and I went in to see her.