I judged rightly that in their awkward situation their close union was their main comfort and that this union had no weak spot.

It was a real marriage, an encouragement to the hesitating, a nut for pessimists to crack.

Their address was humble--I remember afterwards thinking it had been the only thing about them that was really professional--and I could fancy the lamentable lodgings in which the Major would have been left alone.

He could sit there more or less grimly with his wife--he couldn't sit there anyhow without her.
He had too much tact to try and make himself agreeable when he couldn't be useful; so when I was too absorbed in my work to talk he simply sat and waited.

But I liked to hear him talk--it made my work, when not interrupting it, less mechanical, less special.