opinions, and, unawares to himself, adopted them as his own, defying
all argument and opposition. It was the same with her wishes; they
met their fulfilment, from the extreme and delicate art with which
she insinuated them into her husband's mind, as his own. She
sacrificed the show of authority for the power. At last, when Owen
perceived some oppressive act in his father's conduct toward his
dependants, or some unaccountable thwarting of his own wishes, he
fancied he saw his stepmother's secret influence thus displayed,
however much she might regret the injustice of his father's actions
in her conversations with him when they were alone. His father was
fast losing his temperate habits, and frequent intoxication soon took
its usual effect upon the temper. Yet even here was the spell of his
wife upon him. Before her he placed a restraint upon his passion,
yet she was perfectly aware of his irritable disposition, and
directed it hither and thither with the same apparent ignorance of
the tendency of her words.

Meanwhile Owen's situation became peculiarly mortifying to a youth
whose early remembrances afforded such a contrast to his present
state. As a child, he had been elevated to the consequence of a man
before his years gave any mental check to the selfishness which such
conduct was likely to engender; he could remember when his will was
law to the servants and dependants, and his sympathy necessary to his
father: now he was as a cipher in his father's house; and the
Squire, estranged in the first instance by a feeling of the injury he
had done his son in not sooner acquainting him with his purposed
marriage, seemed rather to avoid than to seek him as a companion, and
too frequently showed the most utter indifference to the feelings and
wishes which a young man of a high and independent spirit might be
supposed to indulge.