He called occasionally at Mrs Yule's, and would not do so
less often when he knew that Amy was to be met there. There would
be chance encounters like that of yesterday, of which she had
chosen to keep silence.
A dark fear began to shadow him. In yielding thus passively to
stress of circumstances, was he not exposing his wife to a danger
which outweighed all the ills of poverty? As one to whom she was
inestimably dear, was he right in allowing her to leave him, if
only for a few months? He knew very well that a man of strong
character would never have entertained this project. He had got
into the way of thinking of himself as too weak to struggle
against the obstacles on which Amy insisted, and of looking for
safety in retreat; but what was to be the end of this weakness if
the summer did not at all advance him? He knew better than Amy
could how unlikely it was that he should recover the energies of
his mind in so short a time and under such circumstances; only
the feeble man's temptation to postpone effort had made him
consent to this step, and now that he was all but beyond turning
back, the perils of which he had thought too little forced
themselves upon his mind.
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