`` Want ! '' David 's surprise left him at a loss for words . `` Want ! Why , I -- I -- want my wife . I 've come home . '' `` This is not your home . I 'm no wife of yours . You made your choice when you went away , '' Isabella had replied . Then she had gone in , shut the door , and locked it in his face . David had stood there for a few minutes like a man stunned . Then he had turned and walked away up the lane under the birches . He said nothing -- then or at any other time . From that day no reference to his wife or her concerns ever crossed his lips . He went directly to the harbor , and shipped with Captain Barrett for another voyage . When he came back from that in a month 's time , he bought a small house and had it hauled to the `` Cove , '' a lonely inlet from which no other human habitation was visible . Between his sea voyages he lived there the life of a recluse ; fishing and playing his violin were his only employments . He went nowhere and encouraged no visitors . Isabella Spencer also had adopted the tactics of silence . When the scandalized Chiswicks , Aunt Jane at their head , tried to patch up the matter with argument and entreaty , Isabella met them stonily , seeming not to hear what they said , and making no response . She worsted them totally .
As Aunt XXXXX said in disgust , `` What can you do with a woman who wo n't even TALK ? ''
Barrett Chiswicks Jane Spencer day entreaty habitation left minutes month