Belcher about his plans, but he had been so much
in the habit of managing everything in his business without consulting
her, that it did not occur to him before he started from home that any
matter of his was not exclusively his own. He would just as soon have
thought of taking Phipps into his confidence, or of deferring to his
wishes in any project, as of extending those courtesies to his wife.
There was another consideration which weighed somewhat heavily upon his
mind. He was not entirely sure that he would not be ashamed of Mrs.
Belcher in the grand home which he had provided for himself. He
respected her, and had loved her in his poor, sensual fashion, some
changeful years in the past; he had regarded her as a good mother, and,
at least, as an inoffensive wife; but she was not Mrs. Dillingham. She
would not be at home in the society of which he had caught a glimpse,
or among the splendors to which he would be obliged to introduce her.
Even Talbot, the man who was getting rich upon the products of his
enterprise, had a more impressive wife than he. And thus, with much
reflection, this strange, easy-natured brute without a conscience,
wrought up his soul into self-pity. In some way he had been defrauded.
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