the Princess's question: she merely felt
the impossibility of breaking through the mysterious web of traditions,
conventions, prohibitions that enclosed her in their impenetrable
net-work. But her vanity suggested the obvious pretext, and she murmured
with a laugh: "I didn't know Raymond was going to be so jealous--"

The Princess stared. "Is it Raymond who keeps you shut up here? And what
about his trips to Dijon? And what do you suppose he does with himself
when he runs up to Paris? Politics?" She shrugged ironically. "Politics
don't occupy a man after midnight. Raymond jealous of you? Ah, merci!
My dear, it's what I always say when people talk to me about fast
Americans: you're the only innocent women left in the world..."

XL

After the Princess Estradina's departure, the days at Saint Desert
succeeded each other indistinguishably; and more and more, as they
passed, Undine felt herself drawn into the slow strong current already
fed by so many tributary lives. Some spell she could not have named
seemed to emanate from the old house which had so long been the
custodian of an unbroken tradition: things had happened there in the
same way for so many generations that to try to alter them seemed as
vain as to contend with the elements.

Winter came and went, and once more the calendar marked the first days
of spring; but though the horse-chestnuts of the Champs Elysees were
budding snow still lingered in the grass drives of Saint Desert and
along the ridges of the hills beyond the park. Sometimes, as Undine
looked out of the windows of the Boucher gallery, she felt as if her
eyes had never rested on any other scene. Even her occasional brief
trips to Paris left no lasting trace: the life of the vivid streets
faded to a shadow as soon as the black and white horizon of Saint Desert
closed in on her again.

Though the afternoons were still cold she had lately taken to sitting in
the gallery. The smiling scenes on its walls and the tall screens which
broke its length made it more habitable than the drawing-rooms beyond;
but her chief reason for preferring it was the satisfaction she found in
having fires lit in both the monumental chimneys that faced each other
down its long perspective. This satisfaction had its source in the old
Marquise's disapproval. Never before in the history of Saint Desert had
the consumption of firewood exceeded a certain carefully-calculated
measure; but since Undine had been in authority