But he had been so repelled by his wife, in whose heart a great trouble, steadily repressed, however, had been produced, that he never dared to recur to the subject.
He suffered in silence.

But he no longer suffered alone.

Like an overflowing river that finds an outlet in the valley, which it inundates, the longings for maternity, hitherto repressed by the preoccupations of business, had suddenly seized Madame Desvarennes.
Strong and unyielding, she struggled and would not own herself conquered.

Still she became sad.

Her voice sounded less sonorously in the offices where she gave an order; her energetic nature seemed subdued.