Affairs were in a very bad way.
Occasionally she spoke of Marcus.

Mr.Sieppe had not forgotten him despite his own troubles, but still had an eye out for some one whom Marcus could "go in with" on a ranch.
It was toward the end of this period of three years that Trina and McTeague had their first serious quarrel.

Trina had talked so much about having a little house of their own at some future day, that McTeague had at length come to regard the affair as the end and object of all their labors.

For a long time they had had their eyes upon one house in particular.

It was situated on a cross street close by, between Polk Street and the great avenue one block above, and hardly a Sunday afternoon passed that Trina and McTeague did not go and look at it.
They stood for fully half an hour upon the other side of the street, examining every detail of its exterior, hazarding guesses as to the arrangement of the rooms, commenting upon its immediate neighborhood--which was rather sordid.