'She was still in love with her husband; frequently she glanced at him with furtive wistfulness. She was able to enjoy the summer weather. She was not quite dead to the common phenomena of the roadside. But the last resistances of departing youthfulness and vivacity against the narcotic of a dull, unlovely domesticity were taking place. In a year or two she would be the typical matron of the Lower middle-class.'
A Man From the North, Arnold Bennett.
I can not understand what roadside means in this context. Roadside is defined as:
- the strip of land along a road
- the side of a road
but those don't seem to make sense in this context; the usage appears to be figurative, but figurative for what? Perhaps she is in the sunset of her youth, vigour?