he self-respect of a husband always
restrained him. It was not right that he should surrender so soon. He
must show that if his wife had strength of mind enough to dismiss him,
his strength of mind was not less than hers. On the morrow she would
certainly be the first to plead guilty of contumacy; and with thoughts
like these he went to sleep.

CHAPTER XVII.

A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT.

The next day Rudolf only met his wife at dinner before a numerous
company. There was no trace of displeasure on the lady's handsome face;
she was as captivating, as fascinating as ever, and nothing could exceed
her tenderness, her amiability towards her husband.

Late in the evening, when all the guests had dispersed, they found
themselves alone with each other again, and Rudolf had a grateful
recollection of the German proverb, which says that lovers ought to
quarrel occasionally in order to love each other all the better
afterwards. He fancied that he was enjoying to the full the victory won
in yesterday's warfare, and he felt magnanimous and would not reproach
his wife with her defeat in that sweet hour. But when he embraced Flora
with both arms as if he were going to hold her fast for ever, the lady
gently disentangled herself, and, leaning on his shoulder, whispered in
his ear--

"And now, my dear Rudolf, God be with you! Let us wish each other good
night."

Rudolf was dumfounded.

"You see I am not so flighty as you fancied. I am not weak even where
you are concerned; but I can love, and nobody shall forbid me to love
whom I will." And with that she blew him a kiss from the threshold of
her bedroom, and Rudolf heard her double-lock the door behind her.

Now this of itself was more than enough to make any man angry.

Rudolf tore at least two buttons off his coat in the act of undressing,
and in his wrath took down Hugo Grotius, read steadily away at it till
midnight, and then dashed Hugo Grotius to the ground, for he did not
understand a word that he had been reading. His thoughts were elsewhere.

And the following day passed away with the same peculiar variations.

His wife was captivatingly amiable. Like a seductive siren, she immeshed
her husband in the magic charms of her caresses, was kindness,
tenderness personified, loaded him with every little attention which one
can look for from a gracious lady, right up to her bedroom door, which
she again locked in his face.

Now this was the most exquisite torture co