Had she detected the sham, and did she despise him for it?
These were questions which seemed to bring another self-accusing doubt in his own mind, although, without his being conscious of it, they had been really the outcome of that doubt.

He could not help dwelling on the singular human interest she had taken in Demorest's love affair, and the utterly unexpected emotion she had shown.

He had never seen her as charmingly illogical, capricious, and bewitchingly feminine.

Had he not made a radical mistake in not giving her a frequent provocation for this innocent emotion--in fact, in not taking her out into a world of broader sympathies and experiences?
What a household they might have had--if necessary in some other town--away from those cramped prejudices and limitations! What friends she might have been with Dick and his other worldly acquaintances; what social pleasures--guiltless amusements for her pure mind--in theatres, parties, and concerts! Would she have objected to them ?--had he ever seriously proposed them to her?
No! if she had objected there would have been time enough to have made this present compromise; she would have at least respected and understood his sacrifice--and his friends.
Even the artificial externals of his household had never before so visibly impressed him.

Now that she was no longer in the room it did not even bear a trace of her habitation, it certainly bore no suggestion of his own.