Then, with a
shrug, the look, the resentment, and the passion were shaken off, and
Steel stepped briskly to the inner door, which he had shut in Rachel's
path. Opening it, he bowed her through with a ceremony conspicuous even
in their ceremonious relations.
But Rachel nursed her contrariety, even to the extent of a perverse
satisfaction at her encounter with the judge, and a fierce enjoyment of
its still possible consequences. The mood was neither logical nor
generous, and yet it was human enough in the actual circumstances of the
case. At last she had made him feel! It had taken her the better part of
a year, but here at last was something that he really felt. And it had
to do with her; it was impending disaster to herself which had brought
about this change in her husband; she knew him too well not to acquit
him of purely selfish solicitude for his own good name and comfortable
status in a society for which he had no real regard. There was never a
man less dependent upon the good opinion of other men. In absolute
independence of character, as in sheer strength of personality, Steel
stood by himself in the estimation of his wife.
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