A cloud still hung over Caroline's features.

Try as Ellis would to feel indifferent to his wife's unhappy state of mind, his sensitiveness to the fact became more and more painful every moment.

The interest at first felt in his children, gradually died away, and, by the time supper was over, he was in a moody and fretted state, yet had he manfully striven to keep his mind evenly balanced.
On returning to the sitting-room, the sight of the book he had brought home caused Ellis to make a strong effort to regain his self-possession.

He had set his heart on reading that book to Cara, because he was sure she would get interested therein; and he hoped, by introducing this better class of reading, to awaken a healthier appetite for mental food than she now possessed.

So he occupied himself with a newspaper, while his wife undressed the children and put them to bed.