She was just thirty, tolerably good-looking, and full of the enjoyment of life.

Her children, originally left in the care of her mother, whom Buncombe supported, were now looked after by the two servants of the house, and Buncombe seemed to have no conscientious troubles on that score; to Harvey Rolfe's eye it was plain that the brother and sister were growing up as vicious little savages, but he permitted himself no remark on the subject.
After a few conversations, he gained an inkling of Buncombe's motive in taking a house so much larger than he needed.

This magnificence was meant as an attraction to the roaming wife, whom, it was clear, Buncombe both wished and hoped to welcome back before very long.

She did occasionally visit the house, though only for an hour or two; just to show, said Buncombe, that there was no ill-feeling.

On his part, evidently, there was none whatever.