Although she didn't sit down as he directed, she did come a little closer to the desk. The man looked like an utter wreck. Again and again, she told herself not to be foolish, not to have sympathy, told herself that Jonathan Crane was a monster and a beast -- but the abject loss on his face tugged at her all the same. She knew this sort of pain.
It was a surprise to hear him say 'husband'. She'd read about men marrying men in these days, and the thought would have horrified and scandalized most everyone she knew at home. In the City, it seemed that most everyone was expected to react in the opposite way. Commonly held beliefs didn't make them her beliefs. But at the same time, she couldn't rightly turn away from him, either.
"I didn't know you were married," she said. Hesitating, she thought about the City, thought about how easy it would be to ask where this husband of his was... "Who is he? Do you know anything about why he's gone?"
It shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter. She was still angry that he'd filled her with terror. She wanted him to answer for what he'd done. But even as her anger built back up again, the look of the man behind the desk deflated it once more.