Welcome 
On this point at least I have to disagree. He wanted to marry Dorcas! I understood it was her who turned him down.
If anyone was the victim in the situation it was the poor Lady Adelade, who met and fell for someone, married them and then discovered that his heart was with someone else. Not someone distant who he could get over, but his closest friend. It must have been soul destroying to watch him go off for his rides every day, knowing he was with Dorcas, that he would rather be with Dorcas.
I think she knew she could never measure up to his love for Dorcas and that is why she often seemed petulant and awful. Not because she was by nature that way, but her life with Sir Tim was one of constant rejection.
I truly felt for her and I think that being stuck in an awful circumstance, she maintained her dignity as best she could.
I think that in that circumstance, Dorcas and Sir Tim may not have had a physical affair, but he may as well have because emotionally, he was never true to his wife.

On this point at least I have to disagree. He wanted to marry Dorcas! I understood it was her who turned him down.
If anyone was the victim in the situation it was the poor Lady Adelade, who met and fell for someone, married them and then discovered that his heart was with someone else. Not someone distant who he could get over, but his closest friend. It must have been soul destroying to watch him go off for his rides every day, knowing he was with Dorcas, that he would rather be with Dorcas.
I think she knew she could never measure up to his love for Dorcas and that is why she often seemed petulant and awful. Not because she was by nature that way, but her life with Sir Tim was one of constant rejection.
I truly felt for her and I think that being stuck in an awful circumstance, she maintained her dignity as best she could.
I think that in that circumstance, Dorcas and Sir Tim may not have had a physical affair, but he may as well have because emotionally, he was never true to his wife.
