and was in search
of adventures; one of those women who frequently change their name, and
who, as they have made up their minds to swindle if luck is not on their
side, act a continual part, an adventuress, who could put on every
accent; who for the sake of her course, transformed herself into a Slav,
or into an American, or simply into a provincial; who was ready to take
part in any comedy in order to make money, and not to be obliged to
waste her strength and her brains on fruitless struggles or on wretched
expedients. Thus she immediately guessed the state of this melancholy
sexagenarian's mind, and the illusions which attracted him to her, and
scented the spoils which offered themselves to her cupidity of their own
accord, and divined under what guise she ought to show herself, to make
herself accepted and loved.

She initiated him into depths of grief which were unknown to him, by
phrases which were cut short by sighs, by fragments of her story, which
she finished by a disgusted shrug of the shoulders, and a heartrending
smile, and by insensibly exciting his feelings. In a word, she triumphed
over the last remaining doubts, which might still have mingled with the
affectionate pity with which that poor, solitary heart, which, so full
of bitterness, overflowed.

And so, for the first time since he had become a widower, the old man
confided in another person, poured out his old heart into that soul
which seemed to be so like his own, which seemed to offer him a refuge
where he could be cheered up, and where the wounds of his heart could be
healed, and he longed to throw himself into those sisterly arms, to dry
his tears and to exercise his grief there.

* * * * *

Monsieur de Loubancourt, who had married at twenty-five, as much from
love as from judgment, had lived quietly and peacefully in the country,
much more than in Paris. He was ignorant of the female wiles of
temptations, offered to creatures like Wanda Pulska, who was made up of
lies, and only cared for pleasure, a virgin soil on which any seed will
grow.

She attached herself to him, became his shadow, and by degrees, part of
his life. She showed herself to be a charitable woman who devoted
herself to an unhappy man, who endeavored to console him, and who, in
spite of her youth, was willing to be the inseparable companion of the
old man in his slow, daily walks. She never appeared to tire of his
anecdotes and reminiscences