is, not to regard things
from the side of the creature, for this would make persons appear
more faulty than they were; for my mother-in-law was virtuous and my
husband was religious and had no vice.

My mother-in-law conceived such a hostility to me that, in order to
annoy me, she made me do the most humiliating things; for her temper
was so extraordinary, from not having conquered it in her youth,
that she could not live with any one. I was thus made the victim of
her tempers.

Her whole occupation was continually to thwart me, and she inspired
her son with the same sentiments.

They insisted that persons far beneath me should take precedence, in
order to annoy me. My mother, who was very sensitive on the point of
honor, could not endure this; and when she learned it from
others--for I never said anything of it--she found fault with me,
thinking I did it from not knowing how to maintain my rank, that I
had no spirit, and a thousand other things of this kind.

I dared not tell how I was situated, but I was dying of vexation,
and what increased it still more was the recollection of the persons
who had sought me in marriage, the difference of their temper and
their manner of acting, the love and esteem they had for me, and
their gentleness and politeness: this was very hard for me to bear.

My mother-in-law incessantly spoke to me disparagingly of my father
and my mother, and I never went to see them but I had to endure this
disagreeable talk on my return. On the other hand, my mother
complained of me that she did not see me often enough--she said I
did not love her.

What increased still more my crosses was that my mother related to
my mother-in-law the trouble I had given her in my childhood, so
that the moment I spoke they reproached me with this, and told me I
was a wicked character.

My husband wished me to remain all day in the room of my
mother-in-law, without being allowed to go to my own apartment; I
had not therefore a moment for seclusion or breathing a little.

She spoke disparagingly of me to every one, hoping thereby to
diminish the esteem and affection each had for me, so that she put
insults upon me in the presence of the best society. She discovered
the secret of extinguishing the vivacity of my mind and making me
become quite dull, so that I cou