im: he should no longer find a wife in her--not even a
woman, still less a lovely companion; she would implant in him
intolerable longing and guard that he might not gratify it--not even
lull it on any side, while she would become a statue of marble to his
most maddening advance. He should have no more leisure for study, but be
thrilled with the incessant and implacable sensation which relaxes the
muscles, pales the blood, poisons the marrow, obscures reason, weakens
the will and eats away the soul.

Unfortunately for her hideous project, it was in vain that she painted
the lily of her cheeks and the carmine of her lips, studied useless arts
of the toilet harder than a sage muses over nature's secrets to benefit
mankind, and was the peerless darling of three years ago.

He resisted her till she grew mad.

The progression of vice is such that while she believed she was simply
at the degree of passion, she contemplated another crime.

She ruled the little household, for she had brought from Germany the
girl Hedwig, who had been the tool of her grandmother; this silly and
superstitious girl had gone once to the witch to have her fortune told
and had never shaken off the bonds; these Cesarine took up and drove her
by them. She had led to the entrance of the girl under her roof
ingeniously; Felix was cajoled into believing that she came rather on
the hint of Fraulein Daniels, the Rebecca, of whom he often had
agreeable and soothing memories in his distress.

Ah, she would not have interrupted his studies; she would have
encouraged them; she would never have urged him to accumulate wealth to
expend it in social diversions; while Cesarine fretted at her splendid
voice going to waste in this solitude--the house in the suburbs where no
company comes.

She dreamed of holding a Liberty Hall, where her fancies might have
unlicensed play and her freaks have free course. While gliding about the
quiet house in a neat dress, she imagined herself in robes almost regal,
with golden ornaments, diamonds and the pearls and turquoises which
suited her fairness. What if the gems were set in impurities?

Alas! perfect as a husband, denying her nothing which his limited means
allowed, Felix had not once an inclination to tread beside her the
ballroom floor, the reception hall marbles, and the flower-strewn path
at the aristocratic charity bazaar. Yet he felt firmly assured that he
was destined to a great fortune. He saw the gleam of it a