Her eyes open in the darkened room, she had considered the condition of her marriage and the value of her husband. The marriage, she knew, was superficially pacific and inwardly disturbed. Her husband, she decided, was worth keeping. This latter decision, which may have been surprising under the circumstances, was based on a strange mixture of motives indicative of the person who made it. Compounded of pride and possessiveness and a kind of passionless love, it was directed to the preservation of a certain kind of life that suited Madelaine Cannon perfectly. Rich enough to live where and however she might choose, she chose deliberately to live where and how she did. She liked the academic life associated with Peermont College. She liked the kind of people this life included. She liked being a quiet and subtle power in college politics — a power she had inherited from her father through his money, and which she exercised firmly if not blatantly. And she liked being married to Bradley Cannon, who was handsome enough to excite her pride and brilliant enough to merit a measure of distinction even without the shadowy support of her money.
