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In his attitude to her there was a shade of vexation, but nothing

more. "You would not be open with me," he seemed to say, mentally

addressing her; "so much the worse for you. Now you may beg as

you please, but I won't be open with you. So much the worse for

you!" he said mentally, like a man who, after vainly attempting

to extinguish a fire, should fly in a rage with his vain efforts

and say, "Oh, very well then! you shall burn for this!" This man,

so subtle and astute in official life, did not realize all the

senselessness of such an attitude to his wife. He did not realize

it, because it was too terrible to him to realize his actual

position, and he shut down and locked and sealed up in his heart

that secret place where lay hid his feelings towards his family,

that is, his wife and son. He who had been such a careful father,

had from the end of that winter become peculiarly frigid to his

son, and adopted to him just the same bantering tone he used with

his wife.