For the other features of his character, those which tended to stability, were still strong enough to oppose passions which had not found the occasion for their full development.

He was not exactly avaricious, but pursuit of money was in him an hereditary instinct.

By mere force of habit he stuck zealously to his business, and, without thinking much about his wealth, disliked unusual expenditure.

His wife had taunted him with meanness, with low money-grubbing; the effect had been to make him all the more tenacious of habits which might have given way before other kinds of reproof.

So he had gone on living the ordinary life, to all appearances well contented, in reality troubled from time to time by a reawakening of those desires which he had understood only to have them frustrated.
He groped in a dim way after things which, by chance perceived, seemed to have a certain bearing on his life.