Perhaps Owen was not fully aware of the force of all these
circumstances; for an actor in a family drama is seldom unimpassioned
enough to be perfectly observant. But he became moody and soured;
brooding over his unloved existence, and craving with a human heart
after sympathy.

This feeling took more full possession of his mind when he had left
college, and returned home to lead an idle and purposeless life. As
the heir, there was no worldly necessity for exertion: his father
was too much of a Welsh squire to dream of the moral necessity, and
he himself had not sufficient strength of mind to decide at once upon
abandoning a place and mode of life which abounded in daily
mortifications; yet to this course his judgment was slowly tending,
when some circumstances occurred to detain him at Bodowen.

It was not to be expected that harmony would long be preserved, even
in appearance, between an unguarded and soured young man, such as
Owen, and his wary stepmother, when he had once left college, and
come, not as a visitor, but as the heir to his father's house. Some
cause of difference occurred, where the woman subdued her hidden
anger sufficiently to become convinced that Owen was not entirely the
dupe she had believed him to be. Henceforward there was no peace
between them. Not in vulgar altercations did this show itself; but
in moody reserve on Owen's part, and in undisguised and contemptuous
pursuance of her own plans by his stepmother. Bodowen was no longer
a place where, if Owen was not loved or attended to, he could at
least find peace, and care for himself: he was thwarted at every
step, and in every wish, by his father's desire, apparently, while
the wife sat by with a smile of triumph on her beautiful lips.