club was again raised, but before it could descend, he was
counselled to wait. This he did, and to his greater surprise the ugly
beast began to shrink, and finally disappeared.

Pierre had no convenient goddess to instruct him in critical moments, so
he depended on his own wit. Of this he had inherited a liberal portion,
and this by diligent cultivation had been added to manyfold. So it
happened that after Madame's surprising exhibition of an unsuspected
will of her own, and her declaration of her intention to enforce it,
Pierre had studiously let her alone.

This course of action was as surprising to Madame as it was
disconcerting. The consequences were such as her wily husband had
foreseen. Encountering no externally resisting medium, its force was
wasted by internal attrition, so that Madame was being reduced to a
nervous wreck, all of which was duly appreciated by Pierre.

This particular instance, being expanded into a general law, teaches us
that oftentimes the nimble wit of an agile villain prevails against the
clumsy brains of a lofty-minded hero.

Madame had had long years of patient endurance to train her in waiting;
but the endurance had been passive and purposeless, rather than active,
and with a well-defined object. Now that an object was to be attained by
action the lessons of patient endurance counted for naught. Instead of
determined action against her open revolt, Pierre had been smilingly
obsequious and non-resisting.

She knew very well that Pierre had been neither cowed into submission
nor frightened from his purpose; but his policy of non-interference
puzzled and terrified her. She knew not at what moment he might confront
her with a move that she would have neither time nor power to check. In
this state of mind day after day passed by with wearing regularity. She
felt the time going, every moment fraught with the necessity of action,
but without the slightest suggestion as to what she ought to do.
Pierre's toast might be burned to a crisp, his eggs scorched, or his
coffee muddy, but there was no word of complaint. Regular or irregular
hours for meals were passed over with the same discomposing smiles. She
did not dare unburden her mind to Elise, for fear of letting drop some
untimely word which would immediately precipitate the impending crisis.
For the first time in her life Elise was subjected to petulant words and
irritating repulses by the sorely perplexed woman.

One evening, after a pa