explanations, and who, rather than put
themselves on their guard in time, permit themselves to be drawn
on by circumstances; soft and feeble beings, who deliberately
bandage their eyes so as not to see the danger which threatens
them, and who prefer the sloth of doubt, and acts of uncertainty
to a definite and open position, which they have not the courage
to face.

Besides, Hector experienced a childish satisfaction in seeing
Bertha's distress, though he feared and detested her. He conceived
a great opinion of his own value and merit, when he saw the
persistency and desperation with which she insisted on keeping her
hold on him.

"Poor woman!" thought he. "In her grief at losing me, and seeing
me another's, she has begun to wish for her husband's death!"

Such was the torpor of his moral sense that he did not see the
vileness of Bertha's and his own thoughts.

Meanwhile Sauvresy's state was not reassuring for Hector's hopes
and plans. On the very day when he had this conversation with
Bertha, her husband was forced to take to his bed again. This
relapse took place after he had drank a glass of quinine and water,
which he had been accustomed to take just before supper; only, this
time, the symptoms changed entirely, as if one malady had yielded
to another of a very different kind. He complained of a pricking
in his skin, of vertigo, of convulsive twitches which contracted
and twisted his limbs, especially his arms. He cried out with
excruciating neuralgic pains in the face. He was seized with a
violent, persistent, tenacious craving for pepper, which nothing
could assuage. He was sleepless, and morphine in large doses
failed to bring him slumber; while he felt an intense chill within
him, as if the body's temperature were gradually diminishing.
Delirium had completely disappeared, and the sick man retained
perfectly the clearness of his mind. Sauvresy bore up wonderfully
under his pains, and seemed to take a new interest in the business
of his estates. He was constantly in consultation with bailiffs
and agents, and shut himself up for days together with notaries and
attorneys. Then, saying that he must have distractions, he received
all his friends, and when no one called, he sent for some
acquaintance to come and chat with him in order to forget his
illness. He gave no hint of what he was doing and thinking, and
Bertha was devoured by anxiety. She often watched for her husband's
agent, when, after a conference o