I have struggled to do in life,
supported by the hope of pleasing you. Ah! if you had only loved me!"

"A woman who loves," said Juana, "likes to live in solitude, far from
the world, and that is what we are doing."

"I know, Juana, that _you_ are never in the wrong."

The words were said bitterly, and cast, for the rest of their lives
together, a coldness between them.

On the morrow of that fatal day Diard went back to his old companions
and found distractions for his mind in play. Unfortunately, he won
much money, and continued playing. Little by little, he returned to the
dissipated life he had formerly lived. Soon he ceased even to dine in
his own home.

Some months went by in the enjoyment of this new independence; he was
determined to preserve it, and in order to do so he separated himself
from his wife, giving her the large apartments and lodging himself in
the entresol. By the end of the year Diard and Juana only saw each other
in the morning at breakfast.

Like all gamblers, he had his alternations of loss and gain. Not
wishing to cut into the capital of his fortune, he felt the necessity
of withdrawing from his wife the management of their income; and the day
came when he took from her all she had hitherto freely disposed of
for the household benefit, giving her instead a monthly stipend. The
conversation they had on this subject was the last of their married
intercourse. The silence that fell between them was a true divorce;
Juana comprehended that from henceforth she was only a mother, and she
was glad, not seeking for the causes of this evil. For such an event is
a great evil. Children are conjointly one with husband and wife in the
home, and the life of her husband could not be a source of grief and
injury to Juana only.

As for Diard, now emancipated, he speedily grew accustomed to win and
lose enormous sums. A fine player and a heavy player, he soon became
celebrated for his style of playing. The social consideration he had
been unable to win under the Empire, he acquired under the Restoration
by the rolling of his gold on the green cloth and by his talent for
all games that were in vogue. Ambassadors, bankers, persons with
newly-acquired large fortunes, and all those men who, having sucked life
to the dregs, turn to gambling for its feverish joys, admired Diard at
their clubs,--seldom in their own houses,--and they all gambled with
him. He became the fashion. Two or three times during the wint