the doctor's wife notices everyone is uncomfortable around each other. She says they are "threatening and at the same time affraid". She then goes on to add that each person offers their own threat to the group, and also has a reason to be afraid of the

The doctor's wife thought to herself, They're
behaving as if they were afraid of getting to know each
other. She watched them twitching, tense, their necks
craned as if they were sniffing at something, yet curiously,
their expressions were all the same, threatening and at the
same time afraid, but the fear of one was not the fear of the
other, and this was no less true of the threats they offered.