She began by seeking his opinion of her husband’s chances in Belwick.  Mr. Wyvern shook his head and said frankly that he thought there was no chance at all.  Mutimer was looked upon in the borough as a mischievous interloper, who came to make disunion in the Radical party.  The son of a lord and an ironmaster of great influence were the serious candidates.  Had he seen fit, Mr. Wyvern could have mentioned not a few lively incidents in the course of the political warfare; such, for instance, as the appearance of a neat little pamphlet which purported to give a full and complete account of Mutimer’s life.  In this pamphlet nothing untrue was set down, nor did it contain anything likely to render its publisher amenable to the law of libel; but the writer, a gentleman closely connected with Comrade Roodhouse, most skilfully managed to convey the worst possible impression throughout.  Nor did the vicar hesitate to express his regret that Mutimer should be seeking election at all.  Adela felt with him.

She found Richard in a strange state of chronic excitement.  On whatever subject he spoke it was with the same nervous irritation, and the slightest annoyance set him fuming.  To her he paid very little attention, and for the most part seemed disinclined to converse with her; Adela found it necessary to keep silence on political matters; once or twice he replied to her questions with a rough impatience which kept her miserable throughout the day, so much had it revealed of the working man.  As the election day approached she suffered from a sinking of the heart, almost a bodily fear; a fear the same in kind as that of the wretched woman who anticipates the return of a brute-husband late on Saturday night.  The same in kind; no reasoning would overcome it.  She worked hard all day long, that at night she might fall on deep sleep.  Again she had taken up her hard German books, and was also busy with French histories of revolution, which did indeed fascinate her, though, as she half perceived, solely by the dramatic quality of the stories they told.  And at length the morning of her fear had come.

When he left home Mutimer bade her not expect him till the following day.  She spent the hours in loneliness and misery.  Mr. Wyvern called, but even him she begged through a servant to excuse her; her mother likewise came, and her she talked with for a few minutes, then pleaded headache.  At nine o’clock in the evening she went to her bedroom.  She had a soporific at hand, remaining from the time of her illness, and in dread of a sleepless night she had recourse to it.

It seemed to her that she had slept a very long time when a great and persistent noise awoke her.  It was someone knocking at her door, even, as she at length became aware, turning the handle and shaking it.  Being alone, she had locked herself in.  She sprang from bed, put on her dressing-gown, and went to the door.  Then came her husband’s voice, impatiently calling her name.  She admitted him.