Five Roundabouts to Heaven

I thought sadly how heavily the dice were loaded against the wife in any triangle of this kind.
The other woman knows that the battle is on. The wife doesn't. The other woman is on her best behavior, trying to please, to charm, to flatter, and often, I suppose, to seduce.
The wife, knowing nothing, is behaving like a natural person does^ sometimes pleasant and amusing, sometimes dull, critical, or irritable. And silently watching her is her husband, nothing her faults, comparing her with the alleged paragon of all the virtues.