It may appear to some readers that she gave herself much trouble,
and it is certain that for a woman of a high spirit she had allowed
herself easily to be arrested. It seemed to her that only now she
fully measured the great undertaking of matrimony. Marriage meant that
in such a case as this, when one had to choose, one chose as a
matter of course for one's husband. "I'm afraid-yes, I'm afraid,"
she said to herself more than once, stopping short in her walk. But
what she was afraid of was not her husband-his displeasure, his
hatred, his revenge; it was not even her own later judgement of her
conduct-a consideration which had often held her in check; it was
simply the violence there would be in going when Osmond wished her
to remain. A gulf of difference had opened between them, but
nevertheless it was his desire that she should stay, it was a horror
to him that she should go. She knew the nervous fineness with which he
could feel an objection. What he thought of her she knew, what he
was capable of saying to her she had felt; yet they were married,
for all that, and marriage meant that a woman should cleave to the man
with whom, uttering tremendous vows, she had stood at the altar.
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