his
meals, serving him herself, that she might at least perform voluntarily
some of the visible obligations of a wife.

The banker, to whom the things of marriage were very indifferent, and
who had seen nothing in his wife but seven hundred and fifty thousand
francs, had never once perceived Veronique's repugnance to him. Little
by little he now abandoned Madame Graslin for his business. When
he wished to put a bed in the room adjoining his office on the
ground-floor, Veronique hastened to comply with the request. So that
three years after their marriage these two ill-assorted beings returned
to their original estate, each equally pleased and happy to do so. The
moneyed man, possessing eighteen hundred thousand francs, returned
with all the more eagerness to his old avaricious habits because he had
momentarily quitted them. His two clerks and the office-boy were better
lodged and rather better fed, and that was the only difference
between the present and the past. His wife had a cook and maid (two
indispensable servants); but except for the actual necessities of life,
not a penny left his coffers for his household.

Happy in the turn which things were now taking, Veronique saw in the
evident satisfaction of the banker the absolution for this separation
which she would never have asked for herself. She had no conception that
she was as disagreeable to Graslin as Graslin was repulsive to her. This
secret divorce made her both sad and joyful. She had always looked
to motherhood for an interest in life; but up to this time (1828) the
couple had had no prospect of a family.

IV. THE HISTORY OF MANY MARRIED WOMEN IN THE PROVINCES

So now, in her magnificent house and envied for her wealth by all the
town, Madame Graslin recovered the solitude of her early years in
her father's house, less the glow of hope and the youthful joys
of ignorance. She lived among the ruins of her castles in the air,
enlightened by sad experience, sustained by religious faith, occupied
by the care of the poor, whom she loaded with benefits. She made clothes
for the babies, gave mattresses and sheets to those who slept on straw;
she went among the poor herself, followed by her maid, a girl from
Auvergne whom her mother procured for her, and who attached herself
body and soul to her mistress. Veronique made an honorable spy of her,
sending her to discover the places where suffering could be stilled,
poverty softened.

This active benevolenc