premise: Perhaps I might have recognized my own hypocrisy, if it had not been for Richard's behaviour in the next months. He brought me flowers, took me out to dinner and the theatre, and was generally attentive to me, as if I were his mistress and not an old married woman. If at any point I thought that his solicitude was the sort of tender kindness you might show to someone utterly dependent and helpless - a prisoner or a caged bird - I was ashamed at once and re-doubled my efforts to be a good wife asking Nonni to teach me how to cook the elaborate dishes Richard liked and taking care to change my dress before he came home in the evening.
hypothesis: Richard's solicitude was the sort of tender kindness you might show to someone utterly dependent and helpless