Her demeanor caused him the acutest suffering, and if, at the outset of his enterprise, he had seen, how dimly soever, one of those plaintive eye-beams in the opposite scale, the brilliancy of Roderick's promises would have counted for little.
They made their way to the softest spot in his conscience and kept it chronically aching.

If Mrs.Hudson had been loquacious and vulgar, he would have borne even a less valid persecution with greater fortitude.
But somehow, neat and noiseless and dismally lady-like, as she sat there, keeping her grievance green with her soft-dropping tears, her displeasure conveyed an overwhelming imputation of brutality.

He felt like a reckless trustee who has speculated with the widow's mite, and is haunted with the reflection of ruin that he sees in her tearful eyes.

He did everything conceivable to be polite to Mrs.Hudson, and to treat her with distinguished deference.

Perhaps his exasperated nerves made him overshoot the mark, and rendered his civilities a trifle peremptory.