Then he thought of Edith and the tyranny of her motherhood, always draining her husband's purse and keeping Edith so wrapt up in her children and their daily needs that she had lost all interest in anything outside her home.

What was there wrong about it?
He knew that Edith prided herself on being like her mother.

But Judith had always found time for her friends.

He himself had been more as Edith was now.

How quickly after Judith died he had dropped all friends, all interests.