Looking back on this period from several years on, Jean was able to see the first cracks in her marriage but, like all happy unions that go off the rails in their second or third decade, she didn’t recognize them at the time. The small resentments that she put in a drawer and shut away grew over the years until they burst from their darkness. The way upper class mothers had to quietly go along with their husbands’ decisions—for instance having little say in how their kids were schooled—was just the first crack.
