 and complex. He
felt all that he expressed, but at the same time it seemed to him that he had
the choice between two ways of uttering his emotion, the tenderly appealing and
the sternly reproachful; he took the latter course because it was less natural
to him than the former. His desire was to impress Amy with the bitter intensity
of his sufferings; pathos and loving words seemed to have lost their power upon
her, but perhaps if he yielded to that other form of passion she would be shaken
out of her coldness. The stress of injured love is always tempted to speech
which seems its contradiction. Reardon had the strangest mixture of pain and
pleasure in flinging out these first words of wrath that he had ever addressed
to Amy; they consoled him under the humiliating sense of his weakness, and yet
he watched with dread his wife's countenance as she listened to him. He hoped to
cause her pain equal to his own, for then it would be in his power at once to
throw off this disguise, and soothe her with every softest word his heart could
suggest. That she had really ceased to love him he could not, durst not,
believe; but his nature demanded frequent assurance of affection. Amy had
abandoned too soon the caresses of their ardent time; she was absorbed in her
maternity, and thought it enough to be her husband's friend. Ashamed to make
appeal directly for the tenderness she no longer offered, he accused her of
utter indifference, of abandoning him and all but betraying him, that in
self-defence she might show what really was in her heart.
    But Amy made no movement towards him.
    »How can you say that I have deserted you?« she returned, with cold
indignation. »When did I refuse to share your poverty? When did I grumble at
what we have had to go through?«
    »Ever since the troubles really began you have let me know what your
thoughts were, even if you didn't speak them. You have never shared my lot
willingly. I can't recall one word of encouragement from you, but many, many
which made the struggle harder for me.«
    »Then it would be better for you if I went away altogether, and left you
free to do the best for yourself. If that is what you mean by all this, why not
say it plainly? I won't be a burden to you. Someone will give me a home.«
    »And you would leave me without regret? Your only care would be that you
were still bound to
