[bubalus]

> I have uniformly replied that she must bear our misfortune and fight the fight out to the end, that the children were the first consideration, and that I feared they must bind us together in “appearance.”

I'm curious as to what he actually said to her. Nobody talks to their spouse in such a stuffy way, even if they are estranged.

[civilian]

Have you read the Pickwick Papers? It wouldn't surprise me if Dickens did speak that stuffily.