Granger and his household took up
their abode in Paris. Clarissa had expressed a wish to winter in that
brilliant city, and Daniel Granger had no greater desire than to please
her. But, in making any concession of this kind, he did it in such a quiet
unobtrusive way, that his wife was scarcely aware how entirely her wishes
had been studied. He was too proud a man to parade his affection for her;
he kept a check upon himself rather, and in a manner regulated his own
conduct by the standard of hers. There was never any show of devotion on
his part. The world might have taken them for a couple brought together by
convenience, and making the best of their loveless union.
So, with regard to the gratification of her wishes, it seemed always that
the thing which Clarissa desired, happened to suit his own humour, rather
than that he sacrificed all personal feeling for her pleasure. In this
Parisian arrangement it had been so, and his wife had no idea that it was
entirely on her account that Daniel Granger set up his tent in the Faubourg
St. Honore.
The fair Sophia had, however, a very shrewd suspicion of the fact, and
for some weeks prior to the departure from Arden, existed in a state of
suppressed indignation, which was not good for the model villagers; her
powers of observation were, if possible, sharpened in the matter of
cobwebs; her sense of smell intensified in relation to cabbage-water.
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