His heart began to sicken with hope deferred, and dim forebodings of the future; and he saw, with grief, that his wife was getting duller and duller, and that her days dragged more heavily, far than his own; for he could study.
At last his knocker began to show signs of life: his visitors were physicians.

His lectures on "Diagnosis" were well known to them; and one after another found him out.

They were polite, kind, even friendly; but here it ended: these gentlemen, of course, did not resign their patients to him; and the inferior class of practitioners avoided his door like a pestilence.
Mrs.Staines, who had always lived for amusement, could strike out no fixed occupation; her time hung like lead; the house was small; and in small houses the faults of servants run against the mistress, and she can't help seeing them, and all the worse for her.

It is easier to keep things clean in the country, and Rosa had a high standard, which her two servants could never quite attain.

This annoyed her, and she began to scold a little.