narrow and censorious disapproved her total
inability to conform to the ingrained prejudices of the Vallincourts.

Not that Diane was in any sense of the word a bad woman. She was merely
beautiful and irresponsible--a typical _cigale_ of the stage--lovable
and kind-hearted and pagan, and possessing but the haziest notions of
self-control and self-discipline. Even so, left to themselves, husband
and wife might ultimately have found the road to happiness across the
bridge of their great love for one another.

But such freedom was denied them. Always at Hugh's elbow stood his
sister, Catherine, a rigidly austere woman, in herself an epitome of all
that Vallincourts had ever stood for.

Since the death of their parents, twenty years previously, Catherine had
shared her brother's home, managing his house--and, on the strength of
her four years' seniority in age, himself as well--with an iron hand.
Nor had she seen fit to relinquish the reins of government when he
married.

Privately, Hugh had hoped she might consider the propriety of
withdrawing to the dower house attached to the Coverdale estates, but if
the idea had occurred to her, she had never given it utterance, and Hugh
himself had lacked the courage to propose such an innovation.

So it followed that Catherine was ever at hand to criticise and condemn.
She disapproved of her brother's marriage wholly and consistently. In
her eyes, he had committed an unpardonable sin in allying himself with
Diane Wielitzska. It was his duty to have married a woman of the type
conventionally termed "good," whose blood--and religious outlook--were
alike unimpeachable; and since he had lamentably failed in this respect,
she never ceased to reproach him. Diane she regarded with chronic
disapprobation, exaggerating all her faults and opposing her joy-loving,
butterfly nature with an aloofly puritanical disdain.

Amid the glacial atmosphere of disapproval into which marriage had
thrust her, Diane found her only solace in Virginie, a devoted French
servant who had formerly been her nurse, and who literally worshipped
the ground she walked on. Conversely, Virginie's attitude towards Miss
Vallincourt was one of frank hostility. And deep in the hearts of
both Diane and Virginie lurked a confirmed belief that the birth of a
child--a son--would serve to bring about a better understanding between
husband and wife, and in the end assure Diane her rightful place as
mistress of the house.

"