Nor did the vicar hesitate to
express his regret that Mutimer should be seeking election at all.
Adela felt with him.
She found Richard in a strange state of chronic excitement. On
whatever subject he spoke it was with the same nervous irritation,
and the slightest annoyance set him fuming. To her he paid very
little attention, and for the most part seemed disinclined to
converse with her; Adela found it necessary to keep silence on
political matters; once or twice he replied to her questions with a
rough impatience which kept her miserable throughout the day, so
much had it revealed of the working man. As the election day
approached she suffered from a sinking of the heart, almost a bodily
fear; a fear the same in kind as that of the wretched woman who
anticipates the return of a brute-husband late on Saturday night.
The same in kind; no reasoning would overcome it. She worked hard
all day long, that at night she might fall on deep sleep. Again she
had taken up her hard German books, and was also busy with French
histories of revolution, which did indeed fascinate her, though, as
she half perceived, solely by the dramatic quality of the stories
they told. And at length the morning of her fear had come.
When he left home Mutimer bade her not expect him till the following
day.
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