dest terms.
The Baron applies to his sister to exercise her conjugal influence.
She can only answer that her noble husband (being no longer
distractedly in love with her) now appears in his true character, as
one of the meanest men living. The sacrifice of the marriage has been
made, and has already proved useless.

'Such is the state of affairs at the opening of the Second Act.

'The entrance of the Countess suddenly disturbs the Baron's
reflections. She is in a state bordering on frenzy. Incoherent
expressions of rage burst from her lips: it is some time before she
can sufficiently control herself to speak plainly. She has been doubly
insulted--first, by a menial person in her employment; secondly, by her
husband. Her maid, an Englishwoman, has declared that she will serve
the Countess no longer. She will give up her wages, and return at once
to England. Being asked her reason for this strange proceeding, she
insolently hints that the Countess's service is no service for an
honest woman, since the Baron has entered the house. The Countess
does, what any lady in her position would do; she indignantly dismisses
the wretch on the spot.

'My Lord, hearing his wife's voice raised in anger, leaves the study in
which he is accustomed to shut himself up over his books, and asks what
this disturbance means. The Countess informs him of the outrageous
language and conduct of her maid. My Lord not only declares his entire
approval of the woman's conduct, but expresses his own abominable
doubts of his wife's fidelity in language of such horrible brutality
that no lady could pollute her lips by repeating it. "If I had been a
man," the Countess says, "and if I had had a weapon in my hand, I would
have struck him dead at my feet!"

'The Baron, listening silently so far, now speaks. "Permit me to
finish the sentence for you," he says. "You would have struck your
husband dead at your feet; and by that rash act, you would have
deprived yourself of the insurance money settled on the widow--the very
money which is wanted to relieve your brother from the unendurable
pecuniary position which he now occupies!"

'The Countess gravely reminds the Baron that this is no joking matter.
After what my Lord has said to her, she has little doubt that he will
communicate his infamous suspicions to his lawyers in England. If
nothing is done to prevent it, she may be divorced and disgraced, and
thrown on the world, with no resource but the sale of