Her passionate question was, how could he _argue_--how could he hold and mark the ethical balance--when a _woman_ was suffering, when _children_ were to be left fatherless?
Besides--the ethical balance itself--does it not alter according to the hands that hold it--poacher or landlord, rich or poor?
But she was too exhausted to carry on the contest in words.

Both felt it would have to be renewed.

But she said to herself secretly that Mr.
Wharton, when he got to work, would alter the whole aspect of affairs.
And she knew well that her vantage-ground as towards Aldous was strong.
Then at last he was free to turn his whole attention for a little to her and her physical state, which made him miserable.

He had never imagined that any one, vigorous and healthy as she was, could look so worn out in so short a time.

She let him talk to her--lament, entreat, advise--and at last she took advantage of his anxiety and her admissions to come to the point, to plead that the marriage should be put off.
She used the same arguments that she had done to her mother.
"How can I bear to be thinking of these things ?"--she pointed a shaking finger at the dress patterns lying scattered on the table--"with this agony, this death, under my eyes ?" It was a great blow to him, and the practical inconveniences involved were great.