r own sex who, during the previous autumn, had laid out
their store of fascinations to entrap me in vain--and this made her
perfectly happy. Perhaps the supremest satisfaction a woman of this
sort can attain to is the fact of making her less fortunate sisters
discontented and miserable! I loaded her, of course, with the costliest
gifts, and she, being the sole mistress of the fortune left her by her
"late husband," as well as of the unfortunate Guido's money, set no
limits to her extravagance. She ordered the most expensive and
elaborate costumes; she was engaged morning after morning with
dressmakers, tailors, and milliners, and she was surrounded by a
certain favored "set" of female friends, for whose benefit she
displayed the incoming treasures of her wardrobe till they were ready
to cry for spite and vexation, though they had to smile and hold in
their wrath and outraged vanity beneath the social mask of complacent
composure. And Nina loved nothing better than to torture the poor women
who were stinted of pocket-money with the sight of shimmering satins,
soft radiating plushes, rich velvets, embroidery studded with real
gems, pieces of costly old lace, priceless scents, and articles of
bijouterie; she loved also to dazzle the eyes and bewilder the brains
of young girls, whose finest toilet was a garb of simplest white stuff
unadorned save by a cluster of natural blossoms, and to send them away
sick at heart, pining for they knew not what, dissatisfied with
everything, and grumbling at fate for not permitting them to deck
themselves in such marvelous "arrangements" of costume as those
possessed by the happy, the fortunate future Countess Oliva.

Poor maidens! had they but known all they would not have envied her!
Women are too fond of measuring happiness by the amount of fine clothes
they obtain, and I truly believe dress is the one thing that never
fails to console them. How often a fit of hysterics can be cut short by
the opportune arrival of a new gown!

My wife, in consideration of her approaching second nuptial, had thrown
off her widow's crape, and now appeared clad in those soft subdued
half-tints of color that suited her fragile, fairy-like beauty to
perfection. All her old witcheries and her graceful tricks of manner
and speech were put forth again for my benefit. I knew them all so
well! I understood the value of her light caresses and languishing
looks so thoroughly! She was very anxious to attain the ful