Domestic troubles he
had anticipated, but the unforeseen sequel of his marriage resulted
in a martyrdom at the hands of Clem and her mother such as he had
never dreamed of. His faults and weaknesses distinctly those of the
civilised man, he found himself in disastrous alliance with two
savages, whose characters so supplemented each other as to
constitute in unison a formidable engine of tyranny. Clem--
suspicious, revengeful, fierce, watching with cruel eyes every
opportunity of taking payment on account for the ridicule to which
she had exposed herself; Mrs. Peckover--ceaselessly occupied with
the basest scheming, keen as an Indian on any trail she happened to
strike, excited by the scent of money as a jackal by that of
carrion; for this pair Joseph was no match. Not only did they compel
him to earn his daily bread by dint of methodical effort such as was
torture to his indolent disposition, but, moreover, in pursuance of
Mrs. Peckover's crafty projects, he was constrained to an assiduous
hypocrisy in his relations with Michael and Jane which wearied him
beyond measure. Joseph did not belong to the most desperate class of
hungry mortals; he had neither the large ambitions and the
passionate sensual desires which make life an unending fever, nor
was he possessed with that foul itch of covetousness which is the
explanation of the greater part of the world's activity.
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