ly girls, in delicate and
beautiful toilettes, I thought I had never before seen so many lovely
and happy faces, after a while, when the faces fell into repose, I
thought they were not really lovely and not really happy, but hard and
strained and painful, as if life had been very cruel.

And, above all, I was not impressed by the play, for I thought, in my
ignorance of such productions, that I had never heard anything so
frivolous and foolish, and more than once I found myself wondering
whether my good nuns, if they could have been present, would not have
concluded that the whole company had taken leave of their senses.

There was, however, one thing which did impress me, and that was the
leading actor. It was a woman, and when she first came on to the stage I
thought I had never in my life seen anybody so beautiful, with her
lovely soft round figure, her black eyes, her red lips, her pearly white
teeth, and a smile so sunny that it had the effect of making everybody
in the audience smile with her.

But the strange thing was--I could not account for it--that after a few
minutes I thought her extremely ugly and repellent, for her face seemed
to be distorted by malice and envy and hatred and nearly every other bad
passion.

Nevertheless she was a general favourite, for not only was she applauded
before she did anything, but everything she said, though it was
sometimes very silly, was accompanied by a great deal of laughter, and
everything she sang, though her voice was no great matter, was followed
by a chorus of applause.

Seeing this, and feeling that her appearance had caused a flutter of
interest in the box behind me, I laughed and applauded also, in
accordance with the plan I had prepared for myself, of sharing my
husband's pleasures and entering into his life, although at the bottom
of my heart I really thought the joy was not very joyful or the mirth
very merry.

This went on for nearly an hour, and then a strange thing happened. I
was leaning forward on the velvet barrier of the box in front of me,
laughing and clapping my hands with the rest, when all at once I became
aware that the lady had wheeled about, and, walking down the stage in
the direction of our box, was looking boldly back at me.

I could not at first believe it to be so, and even now I cannot say
whether it was something in her face, or something whispered at my back
which flashed it upon my mind that this was the woman my husband ought
to