But the sour, superior nature was, as usual, unequal to the struggle.

At last it spent itself in vain against the massive brutishness of opposition it had itself developed, and the reaction came, and now daily stunned her into hopeless apathy and abject indifference.

Having lost the power of vexing, and beyond being really vexed by a being she so utterly despised as her husband, there was nothing left but pure passivity and inanition, into which she was rapidly declining.
Mr.Dinks kicked loudly and roared at the door, but Mrs.Dinks did not heed him.

She was sitting in her dingy wrapper, rocking, and pondering upon the conversation of the morning--mechanically rocking, and thinking of the Christinas dinner at Uncle Lawrence's..