A week after their arrival at Matching she was dead.
Had the heavens fallen and mixed themselves with the earth, had the people of London risen in rebellion with French ideas of equality, had the Queen persistently declined to comply with the constitutional advice of her ministers, had a majority in the House of Commons lost its influence in the country,--the utter prostration of the bereft husband could not have been more complete.

It was not only that his heart was torn to pieces, but that he did not know how to look out into the world.

It was as though a man should be suddenly called upon to live without hands or even arms.

He was helpless, and knew himself to be helpless.

Hitherto he had never specially acknowledged to himself that his wife was necessary to him as a component part of his life.