I have friends, but the tinge of contempt which would creep into their pity would be hard to bear.

It's hateful to feel that you are being put up with.
Sometimes I thought I'd go back to Canada." "I've wondered how you stood it as long as you did," George said incautiously.
"Aren't you forgetting?
I had Dick with me then." Sylvia paused and shuddered.

"It would be so different now." George felt reproved and very compassionate.
"Yes," he said, "I'm afraid I forgot; but the whole thing seems unreal.
It's almost impossible to imagine your living on a farm in western Canada." "I dare say it's difficult.

I'll confess I'm fond of ease and comfort and refinement.

I like to be looked after and waited on; to have somebody to keep unpleasant things away.