not verified. Nay, she began to seclude herself still more
and to adopt an even more capricious mode of life. This went so far
that she turned day into night and night into day, and only very
seldom, on some unusual occasion, though always present at the hunting
parties, did she appear among the guests in the castle. At such times
there was nothing noticeable in her manner, she was cordial and even
gay, and a stranger would have had no suspicion that anything unusual
was taking place. When the count's mother died, she attended the
funeral with every sign of sincere sorrow and held out her hand to her
husband for the first time in a year. But directly after the body was
interred, she again disappeared in her own rooms and continued the old
hermit life.

"I asked the count whether he had not himself questioned her concerning
the cause of this singular seclusion. He replied that he had done so
more than once, but she would not speak frankly, and only said she
perceived that she had been very foolish to marry him. She could not
and would not reproach him, but it would be better for both if he would
consent to a separation. She would never change her mind, never submit
to live with him as his wife again. She was sorry for him, but she
couldn't help it.

"In this resolution she remained firm, and neither kind measures nor
harsh produced any effect. After lavishing prayers and endearments,
anger overpowered him. The thought of being made a fool of by a woman,
to whose obedience he had the best claim, made his brain whirl. In the
madness of his pain and anger he burst into savage threats and cursed
the hour when he first saw her. She looked at him with a perfect
calmness and only replied: 'you're right to curse my existence; I curse
it, too. Put an end to this sad story and set me free.'

"But this he could not resolve to do. He could not banish the thought
that time must aid him. To give her a chance for reflection and perhaps
to accustom himself to do without her, he spent six months in traveling
and led a tolerably gay life in Paris and Berlin, but his love was not
weakened nor did he find the smallest change in her on his return; If
there was any alteration, it was for the worse; she was even colder,
sterner, and more reserved toward him and more dissatisfied with life.
Yet her bodily health had never been better, her sleep, her looks, her
pleasure in hunting and even in dancing, when, during the winter, she
was sometim