maneuvers, had always pleased men. But the Count did not like "tricks."
He wished more dignity in the wife of a Zornec and did not hesitate to
tell Sadie so. Nor did he care to have her _gaminerie_ attract other
men. In short, as Sadie confided to Adelle in a burst shortly after her
arrival, the Count was a "regular brute." It seemed that Europeans made
very good lovers, but dangerous husbands. Adelle was to be congratulated
for having married an American, "who at least knew how to treat a
woman," as if she were more than his horse or his servant. Adelle might
once have been pleased by this admission of envy of her Archie; but now
she had her own troubles. However, she did not confess them to any one.
She said good-naturedly that it was hard being married to most any man,
until you got used to it. Sadie shook her small head and showed her
large teeth.

"I'll show him," she said, "that he can't wipe his feet on me! An
American woman won't stand what he's used to."

Adelle suspected dire things, physical violence even, and was silent.

Sadie continued,--"Some day he'll go too far, and then--" She closed
her lips over the teeth in a hard fashion.

Adelle wondered what she would do with the Count in such an event. She
could hardly divorce him, for the Pauls were Catholic as well as the
Zornecs, of course. It was very inconvenient being a Catholic, she
reflected, if you were to be married. And it seemed less easy to drop a
husband in Europe than it was in America. There would be trouble about
the children and all that.

Archie did not find the Count so bad, although he growled sometimes at
his host's thinly veiled contempt for all Americans. Archie felt
superior to the foreign nobleman who had made a rich American marriage.
At least he had taken an heiress from his own people, and there was
distinction in that. But the Count and Archie hunted and rode together,
also drank deeply of the Hungarian wines and excellent French champagne
that the castle contained. He was of the opinion that Sadie Paul had got
"what she deserved."

"She needed a man to throw her around a bit--she was always too fresh,"
he told Adelle.

Archie believed in the strong hand with women. Adelle wondered whether
Archie would ever attempt to use it upon her and what she would do under
such circumstances. She was sure that she would resent it dreadfully.
That would seem too much for any woman to bear--to marry a poor man and
support him quite hand