her to obedience, to teach her to
stand before him and be always ready to wait upon him; he resolved to
discipline her with his looks, his hand, and his foot. Samuel Brohl
possessed a calmer spirit than the Athenian Hippoclide; he was less
brutal than Alnaschar of Bagdad: was he much less ferocious? He
proposed, he also, to educate his wife; he intended that the daughter of
the grand-vizier should consecrate herself wholly to his happiness, to
his service. To possess a beautiful slave, with velvety eyes, chestnut
hair, tinged with gold, who would make of Samuel Brohl her padishah
and her god, who would pass her life at his knees on the alert for his
wishes, reading his good pleasure in his face, attentive to his fancies
and to his eye-brows, belonging to him body and soul, uplifting to him
the gaze of a timid gazelle or a faithful spaniel--such was his dream of
conjugal felicity. And little need would he have to exert himself much
in the education of Mlle. Antoinette Moriaz. Love would charge itself
with that. She adored Samuel Brohl, and he relied upon her devotion; it
were impossible that she could refuse him anything! She was prepared in
advance for every compliance, every obedience; she was ready to be his
humble servant in all things. Knaves make it their boast that they can
readily fathom honest people; the truth is, they only half comprehend
them. Honest people have sentiments, as do certain languages, reputed
easy, which are full of mystery, of refined delicacy, inaccessible to
the vulgar mind. A commercial traveller often learns to speak Italian in
three weeks, and yet never really knows the language; Samuel Brohl had
gained a superficial knowledge of Mlle. Moriaz in a few days, and yet he
was far from having a true comprehension of her.

He arrived at Maisons in the most cheerful, self-satisfied frame of
mind. As he walked through the park, he remembered that Mme. de Lorcy
had lost her only two children when they were still of a tender age;
that she was therefore free to will her property as she pleased; that
she had a short neck, an apoplectic temperament; that Antoinette was her
goddaughter; that although she was piqued with Count Larinski the count
was adroit, and would find a way to regain her sympathies. The park
appeared to him magnificent; he admired its long, regular alleys, which
had the appearance of extending as far as Peking; he paused some moments
before the purple beech, and it seemed to him that