It entangled my will and my
pride; I told myself I was not going to be beaten. I hardened to the
business. I think, as a matter of fact, my real passion for Marion had
waned enormously long before we were married, that she had lived it down
by sheer irresponsiveness. When I felt sure of my three hundred a year
she stipulated for delay, twelve months' delay, "to see how things would
turn out." There were times when she seemed simply an antagonist holding
out irritatingly against something I had to settle. Moreover, I began
to be greatly distracted by the interest and excitement of Tono-Bungay's
success, by the change and movement in things, the going to and fro.
I would forget her for days together, and then desire her with an
irritating intensity at last, one Saturday afternoon, after a brooding
morning, I determined almost savagely that these delays must end.
I went off to the little home at Walham Green, and made Marion come with
me to Putney Common. Marion wasn't at home when I got there and I had
to fret for a time and talk to her father, who was just back from
his office, he explained, and enjoying himself in his own way in the
greenhouse.
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