John and Amelia Phillips put their own unjustifiable dislike of Stephen aside when they found that Emily 's heart was set on him . The two were married after a brief courtship and Emily went out from her girlhood 's home to the Fair homestead , two miles away . Stephen 's mother lived with them . Janet Fair had never liked Emily . She had not been willing for Stephen to marry her . But , apart from this , the woman had a natural , ineradicable love of making mischief and took a keen pleasure in it . She loved her son and she had loved her husband , but nevertheless , when Thomas Fair had been alive she had fomented continual strife and discontent between him and Stephen . Now it became her pleasure to make what trouble she could between Stephen and his wife . She had the advantage of Emily in that she was always sweet-spoken and , on the surface , sweet-tempered . Emily , hurt and galled in a score of petty ways , so subtle that they were beyond a man 's courser comprehension , astonished her husband by her fierce outbursts of anger that seemed to him for the most part without reason or excuse . He tried his best to preserve the peace between his wife and mother ; and when he failed , not understanding all that Emily really endured at the elder woman 's merciless hands , he grew to think her capricious and easily irritated -- a spoiled child whose whims must not be taken too seriously . To a certain extent he was right . Emily had been spoiled . The unbroken indulgence which her brother and sister had always accorded her had fitted her but poorly to cope with the trials of her new life . True , Mrs. Fair was an unpleasant woman to live with , but if Emily had chosen to be more patient under petty insults , and less resentful of her husband 's well-meant though clumsy efforts for harmony , the older woman could have effected real little mischief . But this Emily refused to be , and the breach between husband and wife widened insidiously . The final rupture came two years after their marriage . Emily , in rebellious anger , told her husband that she would no longer live in the same house with his mother . `` You must choose between us , '' she said , her splendid voice vibrating with all the unleashed emotion of her being , yet with no faltering in it . `` If she stays I go . ''
Stephen Fair , harassed and bewildered , was angry with the relentless XXXXX of a patient man roused at last .
anger brother dislike home homestead hurt pleasure trials trouble whims