They saw also that Mr.Dexter was inferior, selfish, captious at times, and kept his wife always under surveillance, as if afraid of her constancy.

The different conduct of the ladies, touching this relation of Mrs.Dexter to her husband, was in marked contrast.

While Mrs.De Lisle never approached the subject in a way to invite communication, Mrs.Anthony, in the most adroit and insinuating manner, almost compelled a certain degree of confidence--or at least admission that there was not and never could be, any interior conjunction between herself and husband.
Mrs.Anthony was a highly intellectual and cultivated woman, with fascinating manners, a strong will, and singularly fine conversational powers.

She usually exercised a controlling influence over all with whom she associated.

Happy it was for Mrs.Dexter that a friend like Mrs.De Lisle came to her in the right time, and filled her mind with right principles for her own pure instincts to rest upon as an immovable foundation.
An hour spent in company with Mrs.Anthony always left Mrs.Dexter in a state of disquietude, and suffering from a sense of restriction and wrong.