they traveled together to St.
Valery-en-Caux, another little seaside place several hours' journey
from Ault.

Here they took rooms together at a hotel, and wrote themselves down as
man and wife. The countess' letters were forwarded by the postmistress
at Ault under cover to Anne. The only thing that disturbed Wilhelm's
peace of mind was the presence of Anne. Her manner was just as
impassive, her face as solemn as before, and she never showed that she
noticed any change in her mistress way of life. But it was just this
cold-blooded acceptance of facts which must at the very least excite
her remark that upset him so much, and every time Anne came into the
room and found him with Pilar, he was as much ashamed as if she had
surprised him in some cowardly and wicked deed. Did he happen to be
sitting beside her on the sofa, he started as if to jump up; if he had
hold of her hand, he dropped it on the spot. Pilar noticed it, of
course, and thought it an excellent joke. She was herself perfectly
unconcerned before Anne, and put no constraint on herself whatever in
her presence. On the contrary, she thought it great fun to throw her
arms round Wilhelm when the maid came and he attempted to move away, or
she would tutoyer him and kiss him to her face, and was intensely
amused at his embarrassed and miserable air as he suffered her
caresses, though not without a stolen gesture of objection. His shyness
was not unobserved by Anne's quick though furtive eyes, and she owed
him a grudge for wishing to exclude her from his secret.

But with the exception of the discomfort caused him by this silent
witness, his happiness was unalloyed. He lived in a constant rapture of
the senses, and Pilar took good care that he should not awake from it.
She never left him to himself, except during the two hours in the
morning which she devoted to her toilette. It was her peculiar habit to
steal away in the early morning while Wilhelm was still asleep, and
repair noiselessly to the dressing-room, where Anne was already
waiting, and where she gave herself up into the skilled hands of the
maid, who kneaded her, washed and rubbed her, and treated her hands,
feet, and hair with consummate art, and the aid of an army of curious
instruments and an exhaustive collection of cosmetics. She would then
appear to wake Wilhelm with a kiss. On opening his eyes it was to see
her in the full glory of her beauty, with the flush of health upon her
cheeks, with rosy f