Both must have felt, too, that there was nothing that could be explained.

An anonymous double entendre was not precisely evidence on which to found a rupture of the marital tie.

The trouble was so much deeper than that--the throbbing of a woman's wounded self-esteem, of the feeling that she was no longer loved, which had long cried out for revenge.
One morning in the middle of the week after this incident the innocent author of it presented herself in Hilary's study, and, standing in her peculiar patient attitude, made her little statements.

As usual, they were very little ones; as usual, she seemed helpless, and suggested a child with a sore finger.

She had no other work; she owed the week's rent; she did not know what would happen to her; Mrs.Dallison did not want her any more; she could not tell what she had done! The picture was finished, she knew, but Mrs.Dallison had said she was going to paint her again in another picture....
Hilary did not reply.
"....That old gentleman, Mr .-- Mr.Stone, had been to see her.