and her character.

Mother and daughter had a true friendship for each other, beyond the
filial and maternal sentiment. They suited one another, and their
perpetual contact had never produced the slightest jar. Consequently
many persons explained Madame Evangelista's actions by maternal love.
But although Natalie consoled her mother's persistent widowhood, she may
not have been the only motive for it. Madame Evangelista had been, it
was said, in love with a man who recovered his titles and property
under the Restoration. This man, desirous of marrying her in 1814 had
discreetly severed the connection in 1816. Madame Evangelista, to all
appearance the best-hearted woman in the world, had, in the depths of
her nature, a fearful quality, explainable only by Catherine de Medici's
device: "Odiate e aspettate"--"Hate and wait." Accustomed to rule,
having always been obeyed, she was like other royalties, amiable,
gentle, easy and pleasant in ordinary life, but terrible, implacable,
if the pride of the woman, the Spaniard, and the Casa-Reale was touched.
She never forgave. This woman believed in the power of her hatred; she
made an evil fate of it and bade it hover above her enemy. This fatal
power she employed against the man who had jilted her. Events which
seemed to prove the influence of her "jettatura"--the casting of an evil
eye--confirmed her superstitious faith in herself. Though a minister and
peer of France, this man began to ruin himself, and soon came to total
ruin. His property, his personal and public honor were doomed to perish.
At this crisis Madame Evangelista in her brilliant equipage passed her
faithless lover walking on foot in the Champes Elysees, and crushed him
with a look which flamed with triumph. This misadventure, which occupied
her mind for two years, was the original cause of her not remarrying.
Later, her pride had drawn comparisons between the suitors who presented
themselves and the husband who had loved her so sincerely and so well.

She had thus reached, through mistaken calculations and disappointed
hopes, that period of life when women have no other part to take in life
than that of mother; a part which involves the sacrifice of themselves
to their children, the placing of their interests outside of self upon
another household,--the last refuge of human affections.

Madame Evangelista divined Paul's nature intuitively, and hid her own
from his perception. Paul was the very man she desired fo