half-rights

Updated: May 29, 2025

This tender intimacy of night the natural intimacy of husband and wife; this sense, which would not be denied, however sternly he might hold it in check, of her dear form beside him; the little refinements and self-revelations of a woman's room; his half-rights towards her, appealing at once to love, and to the memory of that solemn pledge by which he had won her what man who deserved the name but must be conscious, tempestuously conscious, of such thoughts and facts?

Mrs. Humphry Ward - Lady Rose's Daughter