Wharton, Edith: The Touchstone, v.1, 3 Feb 2008.
 

(1900)
A short novel, set in New York.

Glennard, a young lawyer, has a serious inferiority complex. He regards Alexa as his moral compass—his touchstone. In order to marry her, he does something utterly contemptible and cannot live with himself.
So he arranges that she finds out about his actions because “it would rid Glennard of the necessity of defending himself against the perpetual criticism of his wife’s belief in him…”
However, Alexa’s reaction is not what one might expect…