Side by side with that piteous plaintive misery, her own fierceness dwindled.

She would sit with little Willie on her knees in the dusk of the spring evenings, looking into the fire, and crying silently.

She never suspected that her presence was often a burden and constraint, not only to the sulky sister-in-law but to the wife herself.

While Miss Boyce was there the village kept away; and Mrs.
Hurd was sometimes athirst, without knowing it, for homelier speech and simpler consolations than any Marcella could give her.
The last week arrived.

Wharton's letters grew more uncertain and despondent; the Radical press fought on with added heat as the cause became more desperate.