its and affection by little endearments and such
caresses as one bestows on a kitten. He could think of nothing better.

"I called upon the married couple pretty frequently, and I soon
perceived that the young woman knew her husband, and gave him those
eager looks which she had hitherto only bestowed on sweet dishes.

"She followed his movements, knew his step on the stairs or in the
neighboring rooms, clapped her hands when he came in, and her face
was changed and brightened by the flames of profound happiness and of
desire.

"She loved him with her whole body and with all her soul to the very
depths of her poor, weak soul, and with all her heart, that poor heart
of some grateful animal. It was really a delightful and innocent picture
of simple passion, of carnal and yet modest passion, such as nature had
implanted in mankind, before man had complicated and disfigured it by
all the various shades of sentiment. But he soon grew tired of this
ardent, beautiful, dumb creature, and did not spend more than an hour
during the day with her, thinking it sufficient if he came home at
night, and she began to suffer in consequence. She used to wait for him
from morning till night with her eyes on the clock; she did not even
look after the meals now, for he took all his away from home, Clermont,
Chatel-Guyon, Royat, no matter where, as long as he was not obliged to
come home.

"She began to grow thin; every other thought, every other wish, every
other expectation, and every confused hope disappeared from her mind,
and the hours during which she did not see him became hours of terrible
suffering to her. Soon he ceased to come home regularly of nights; he
spent them with women at the casino at Royat and did not come home until
daybreak. But she never went to bed before he returned. She remained
sitting motionless in an easy-chair, with her eyes fixed on the hands of
the clock, which turned so slowly and regularly round the china face on
which the hours were painted.

"She heard the trot of his horse in the distance and sat up with a
start, and when he came into the room she got up with the movements of
an automaton and pointed to the clock, as if to say: 'Look how late it
is!'

"And he began to be afraid of this amorous and jealous, half-witted
woman, and flew into a rage, as brutes do; and one night he even went
so far as to strike her, so they sent for me. When I arrived she was
writhing and screaming in a terrible crisis o