Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/272

262 or when she looks flat and wants shaking up a bit. And sometimes, she provokes me by crying for nothing, and won't tell me what it's for; and then, I allow, it enrages me past bearing—especially, when I'm not my own man."

"As is no doubt generally the case on such occasions," said I. "But in future, Mr. Hattersley, when you see her looking flat or crying for 'nothing' (as you call it,) ascribe it all to yourself: be assured it is something you have done amiss, or your general misconduct that distresses her."

"I don't believe it. If it were, she should tell me so: I don't like that way of moping and fretting in silence, and saying nothing—it's not honest. How can she expect me to mend my ways at that rate?"

"Perhaps she gives you credit for having more sense than you possess, and deludes herself with the hope that you will one day see your own errors and repair them, if left to your own reflection."