Now there were signs of change.

A glimmering notion of the duty of sacrifice entered her head.
She carried it out by appearing one day, when Septimus was taking her for a drive, in the monstrous nightmare of a hat.

It is not given to breathing male to appreciate the effort it cost her.

She said nothing; neither did he.

She sat for two hours in the victoria, enduring the tortures of the uglified, watching him out of the tail of her eye and waiting for a sign of recognition.