She saw it now.

She had hoped against hope: she had said to herself that in a year and a half he would surely have altered his mind--he would have found now how hard it was to live alone, to live without love--he would have found that there was something dearer in the world than family pride--he would have discovered that love outweighed everything else.

Then she saw that her anticipations were all wrong--he preferred his dead ancestors to his living wife.
She went back to Winiston House and took up the dreary round of life again.

She might have made her lot more endurable and happier, she might have traveled, have sought society and amusement; but she had no heart for any of these things.

She had spent the year and a half of her lonely married life in profound study, thinking to herself that if he should claim her he would be pleased to find her yet more accomplished and educated.