Theirs was an arranged marriage: two well-educated children of prominent Pakistani families set up through a mutual friend. He was the quiet one; she was the one who laughed at parties. At their wedding in Peshawar six years ago, men and women danced separately but also together, 'a rarity at that time,' recalled one guest. 'It was such a huge gathering that even their family friends from Qatar came.' When they returned to the United States, his colleagues at the cosmetics maker Elizabeth Arden celebrated with a small office party. The husband, Faisal Shahzad, put photographs of his wife, Huma Mian, on his desk at the Arden office in Stamford, Conn. They bought a brand-new house for $273,000, 35 miles away on Long Hill Avenue in Shelton. By the time they moved in, she was pregnant, the neighbors recalled. As another day passed with Shahzad talking to investigators about the car bomb he had admitted driving into Times Square on Saturday, details emerged on Wednesday about the couple and their life together, along with speculation about his radicalization. People who knew them, both in Connecticut and in Pakistan, said he had changed in the past year or so, becoming more reserved and more religious as he faced what someone who knows the family well called 'their financial troubles.' Last year, one Pakistani friend said, he even asked his father, Bahar ul-Haq, a retired high-ranking air force pilot in Pakistan, for permission to fight in Afghanistan. Ul-Haq, now in his 70s, adamantly refused, according to a person familiar with the conversation, saying that he disapproved of the mission and reminding his son that Islam does not permit a man to abandon his wife or children. As a newlywed, the wedding guest said by e-mail from Pakistan, 'there was no sign of him being extremist or, for that matter, he wasn't a bit religious.' But in the past couple of years, after changing jobs and fathering two children, Shahzad 'started talking more of Islam.' The guest spoke on the condition he not be identified because of concerns about his safety in the wake of the attempted car bombing. 'The recession had taken a toll on them, I guess,' he wrote in an e-mail message from Pakistan. He said that their money worries became apparent in 2008 or 2009 and that Shahzad 'lost his way during the financial problems.' J.P. Morgan Chase has since moved to foreclose on the Shelton house, which the couple had abandoned in a hurry, leaving behind clothes and toys. 