Theodore Dreiser in "The Lost Phoebe" wrote:

Old Henry...and his wife Phoebe were a loving couple. You perhaps know how it is with simple natures that fasten themselves like lichens on the stones of circumstance and weather their days to a crumbling conclusion. The great world sounds widely, but it has no call for them...

Old Henry and his wife Phoebe were as fond of each other as it is possible for two old people who have nothing else in this life to be fond of...

Old Henry, who knew his wife would never leave him in any circumstance, used to speculate at times as to what he would do if she were to die. That was the one leaving that he
really feared...






photo by prakhar

Theodore Dreiser, on different opinions regarding success, even between married couples, wrote the following in his story "Free":

...perhaps it was not just obtuseness to certain of the finer shades and meanings of life, but an irritating aggressiveness at times, backed only by her limited understanding, which caused her to seek and wish to be here, there and the other place; wherever, in her mind, the truly successful --which meant nearly always the materially successful of a second and third rate character-- were, which irritated him most of all. How often had he tried to point out the difference between true and shoddy distinction--the former rarely connected with great wealth.

But no. So often she seemed to imagine such queer people to be truly successful, when they were really not--usually people with just money, or a very little more...