d not go with him to the play; indeed,
Granville could never give them any pleasure without bringing down
punishment from their terrible mother. His loving nature was weaned to
indifference, to a selfishness worse than death. His boys, indeed, he
saved from this hell by sending them to school at an early age, and
insisting on his right to train them. He rarely interfered between his
wife and her daughters; but he was resolved that they should marry as
soon as they were old enough.

Even if he had wished to take violent measures, he could have found no
justification; his wife, backed by a formidable army of dowagers, would
have had him condemned by the whole world. Thus Granville had no choice
but to live in complete isolation; but, crushed under the tyranny of
misery, he could not himself bear to see how altered he was by grief and
toil. And he dreaded any connection or intimacy with women of the world,
having no hope of finding any consolation.

The improving history of this melancholy household gave rise to no
events worthy of record during the fifteen years between 1806 and 1825.
Madame de Granville was exactly the same after losing her husband's
affection as she had been during the time when she called herself happy.
She paid for Masses, beseeching God and the Saints to enlighten her as
to what the faults were which displeased her husband, and to show her
the way to restore the erring sheep; but the more fervent her prayers,
the less was Granville to be seen at home.

For about five years now, having achieved a high position as a judge,
Granville had occupied the _entresol_ of the house to avoid living with
the Comtesse de Granville. Every morning a little scene took place,
which, if evil tongues are to be believed, is repeated in many
households as the result of incompatibility of temper, of moral or
physical malady, or of antagonisms leading to such disaster as is
recorded in this history. At about eight in the morning a housekeeper,
bearing no small resemblance to a nun, rang at the Comte de Granville's
door. Admitted to the room next to the Judge's study, she always
repeated the same message to the footman, and always in the same tone:

"Madame would be glad to know whether Monsieur le Comte has had a good
night, and if she is to have the pleasure of his company at breakfast."

"Monsieur presents his compliments to Madame la Comtesse," the valet
would say, after speaking with his master, "and begs her to hol