sth. Hence it seemed to him
he could pull the strings of this complex drama, and defeat the
conspiracy against Evila's honor; for this purpose he went into a
world that he despised, affected a manner of life totally inconsistent
with his ideas, and cultivated a friendship with the Countess Angela,
that his influence might induce her to play the part of the good
angel.

Was he a fool to sacrifice his own feelings for a woman who had
inflicted upon him the severest mortification a man can endure? Those
whose hearts are dominated by cold prudence will judge his folly
perhaps rightly; those who have hearts that feel for others will
acknowledge that he did well in obeying its dictates, and from his own
point of view, perhaps, he acted for his own ultimate advantage.

If Prince Theobald is induced to consent to the lease of his property
to the Bondavara Company, Ivan's little coal-mine is ruined. Good if
he can, while working for another, help himself. A man of business is
always a speculator; therefore we say to the warm-hearted and
compassionate that Ivan acted a part to save Evila from shame, and to
the cold-hearted and unfeeling that it was all in the way of business,
to save, if he could, his little all from the monster company ready to
devour it bodily.

Arpad continued to send the photographs. They were of all kinds,
tragic and comic. "Medea," with her murderous revenge and jealousy;
the daughter of Herod, with her voluptuous dance to gain the saint's
head; the cruelty of "Judith," the wild laughter of "Jeanne la Folle,"
the devotion of a holy nun, the coquettish tricks of a _grisette_, a
languid Creole, a supernatural "Will-o'-the-Wisp"--these were the
principal representations in which Ivan found rather studied effort at
catching an artistic effect than natural instinct or expression. This
was the school of Madame Grissac, to whom Felix had intrusted Evila's
education. Two portraits that came at the end produced upon Ivan a
painful impression. One represented a mother by the cradle of her
child, the other a peasant girl, a coal-carrier, with her hair plaited
down her back, and a red frock tucked up above her ankles. It pained
Ivan deeply that she should profane these two sacred subjects. Why
take a mother's love to be made a vehicle to create an old man's
admiration? And the girl with the red frock! Ah, that was
unpardonable! He could not forgive her for having wounded him to the
very heart.

One day the artist