She could disregard anonymous letters because he did so, but there were plenty of disagreeable people who might make innuendoes.

She saw that Rafael too, to some extent, avoided his countless friends of old days.  She did not understand the reason, but it was this:  that he, as well, felt that they knew more of her than it was expedient for him to know.  She saw that he made ingenious excuses for not being seen out with her.  This, too, she misconstrued.  She did not at all understand that he, in his way, was quite as frightened as she was of what people might say.  She believed that he sought the society of others rather than hers.  If nothing more came of such intercourse, stories might be told.  This was the reason for her slanders about almost every one he spoke to.  If they had vilified her, they must be vilified in return.

She had debts, and this could not be concealed unless she increased them; this she did with a boldness worthy of a better cause.  The house was kept on an extravagant scale, with an excellent table and great hospitality.  Otherwise he would not be comfortable at home, she said and believed.

She herself vied with the most fashionably dressed ladies in the town.  Her daily struggle to maintain her hold on him demanded this.  It followed, of course, that she got everything for “nothing” or “the greatest bargain in the world.”  There was always some one “who almost gave it” to her.  He did not know himself how much money he spent, perhaps, because she hunted and drove him from one thing to another.

Originally he had thought of going abroad; but with a wife who knew no foreign languages, with a large family—­

Here at home, as he soon discovered, every one had lost confidence in him.  He dared not take up anything important, or else he wished to wait a little before he came to any definite determination.  In the meantime, he did whatever came to hand, and that was often work of a subordinate description.  Both from weariness, and from the necessity to earn a living, he ended by doing only mediocre work, and let things drift.

He always gave out that this was only “provisional.”  His scientific gifts, his inventive genius, with so many pounds on his back, did not rise high, but they should yet!  He had youth’s lavish estimate of time and strength, and therefore did not see, for a long time, that the large family, the large house were weighing him farther and farther down.  If only he could have a little peace, he thought, he would carry out his present ideas and new ones also.  He felt such power within him.