d themselves very
comfortable, the pair had taken up a practically permanent residence
with me. I was very glad to have them, and assigned them a handsome set
of apartments quite at the other end of the house. Here they lived in
considerable splendour, seeing a great deal of company and assuming the
position of social leaders. Victoria at least was admirably suited to
play such a part, and I certainly did not grudge it to her; for my
mother I can not speak so confidently. William Adolphus, having
abandoned his military pursuits, led an idle lounging life. In
consequence he grew indolent; his stoutness increased. I mention this
personal detail merely because I believe that it had a considerable
influence on Victoria's feelings toward him. Her varied nature included
a vivid streak of the romantic, and with every expansion in his belt and
every multiplication of the folds of his chin William Adolphus came to
satisfy this instinct in her less and less. She sought other interests;
she contrived to combine very dexterously the _femme incomprise_ with
the leader of fashion; she posed as a patron of letters and the arts,
indulging in intellectual flirtations with professors and other learned
folk. There was no harm in this, and William Adolphus would not have
been in the smallest degree disturbed by it. He had all the
self-confidence given by a complete want of imagination. Unhappily,
however, she began to treat him with something very like contempt,
allowed him to perceive that his company did not satisfy her spiritual
and mental requirements, and showed herself more than willing that he
should choose his own associates and dispose of his own time. He was not
resentful; he confessed that his wife's friends bored him, and availed
himself amply and good-naturedly of the liberty which her expressed
preferences afforded him. He devoted himself to his sport, his dogs, and
his horses; this was all very well. He also became a noted patron of the
lighter forms of the drama; this, for reasons that I shall indicate
directly, was not quite so well. Out of this last taste of William
Adolphus came the strained relations between his wife and himself to
which I have referred.

Among those who have crossed my path few have stamped themselves more
clearly on my memory than Coralie Mansoni. She was by no means so great
a force in my life as was the Countess von Sempach, but she remains a
singularly vivid image before my eyes. Born heaven knew w