This is certainly a bit pacier than the first volume, which is why I liked it better. There's a lot more to fit in here, though - I get the feeling, to be honest, that the first half was mainly set-up.

In a nutshell: I hate to say it, Isabel, but it does take you a long time to catch on. Perhaps you are simply a significantly less suspicious person than I am, but I clocked the relationships here much earlier than you did. You don't know how tempted I am to say "You've only yourself to blame" because it's not like you weren't warned about your deeply unpleasant husband by multiple different people, but I try to remember that you were very young when you agreed to marry him, and far more sheltered than the women of today. Since the scales have fallen off your eyes, however, I am inclined, as you age, to be less sympathetic. I feel more sorry for Pansy than you, and despite the open ending I unhappily believe that you will return to your husband and do very little other than sink into misery, all the while telling yourself it makes you a paragon. Oh well, on your own head be it.