He had at his worst times always been gentle in his manner towards her.

Could it be that she might make of him a true and worthy husband yet?
She had married him; there was no getting over that; and ought she any longer to keep him at a distance?
His suave deference to her lightest whim on the question of his comings and goings, when as her lawful husband he might show a little independence, was a trait in his character as unexpected as it was engaging.

If she had been his empress, and he her thrall, he could not have exhibited a more sensitive care to avoid intruding upon her against her will.
Impelled by a remembrance she took down a prayer-book and turned to the marriage-service.

Reading it slowly through, she became quite appalled at her recent off-handedness, when she rediscovered what awfully solemn promises she had made him at those chancel steps not so very long ago.
She became lost in long ponderings on how far a person's conscience might be bound by vows made without at the time a full recognition of their force.

That particular sentence, beginning "Whom God hath joined together," was a staggerer for a gentlewoman of strong devotional sentiment.