The Bitter Taste of Truth — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

One morning Mrs Markham begs Gilbert to be a little more amiable. He says nothing is the matter, yet she has never seen him so altered in a few days: he has no good word for friend or stranger. He hides in a book, unable to justify himself and unwilling to confess. Fergus calls him a tiger in human form, says he nearly fractured his skull for a love-song, and sings "Shall I, because a woman's fair" on the way out. Forced back to duty, Gilbert walks to Ryecote Farm to buy a field he has put off for days, dreading Jane Wilson and Eliza Millward now that he believes their reports and still cannot bear to hear them.

Robert Wilson is out. Jane and Eliza sit in the parlour, cool and civil, with malice in Eliza's eye. They needle him about Helen with feigned sympathy, call her unworthy, and watch him flush. He forbids them to speak her name. Jane says the name is unfit for right-minded females. He almost bursts from the house, then bites his lip at the window rather than give them a laugh. Robert arrives; Gilbert concludes the bargain bluntly and leaves him to his refreshment.

He looks in on his reapers, then climbs toward a higher corn-field. Mrs Graham and Arthur come down the opposite path. Arthur already runs to meet him. Gilbert turns back at once, determined never to encounter the mother again, and walks steadily homeward while the boy's shrill voice calls him to wait a moment. When he looks round, neither is in sight. The rest of the day is worse than the morning.