For the wrong that rouses our angry passions finds only a medium in us; it passes through us like a vibration, and we inflict what we have suffered.
Mrs.Raynor saw too clearly all through the winter that things were getting worse in Orchard Street.

She had evidence enough of it in Janet's visits to her; and, though her own visits to her daughter were so timed that she saw little of Dempster personally, she noticed many indications not only that he was drinking to greater excess, but that he was beginning to lose that physical power of supporting excess which had long been the admiration of such fine spirits as Mr.Tomlinson.It seemed as if Dempster had some consciousness of this--some new distrust of himself; for, before winter was over, it was observed that he had renounced his habit of driving out alone, and was never seen in his gig without a servant by his side.
Nemesis is lame, but she is of colossal stature, like the gods; and sometimes, while her sword is not yet unsheathed, she stretches out her huge left arm and grasps her victim.

The mighty hand is invisible, but the victim totters under the dire clutch.
The various symptoms that things were getting worse with the Dempsters afforded Milby gossip something new to say on an old subject.

Mrs.
Dempster, every one remarked, looked more miserable than ever, though she kept up the old pretence of being happy and satisfied.

She was scarcely ever seen, as she used to be, going about on her good-natured errands; and even old Mrs.Crewe, who had always been wilfully blind to anything wrong in her favourite Janet, was obliged to admit that she had not seemed like herself lately.