e wife's heart with a pang still stronger than that of indignation.
She, the strong Englishwoman, so large, so robust, almost masculine in
form, mentally compared herself with the supple Italian with her form so
round, with her gestures so graceful, her hands so delicate, her feet so
dainty; compared herself with the creature of desire, whose every
movement implied a secret wave of passion, and she ceased her cry--"Ah,
how could he?"--at once. She had a clear knowledge of the power of her
rival.

It is indeed a supreme agony for an honorable woman, who loves, to feel
herself thus degraded by the mere thought of the intoxication her husband
has tasted in arms more beautiful, more caressing, more entwining than
hers. It was, too, a signal for the return of will to the tortured but
proud soul. Disgust possessed her, so violent, so complete, for the
atmosphere of falsehood and of sensuality in which Boleslas had lived two
years, that she drew herself up, becoming again strong and implacable.
Braving the storm, she turned in the direction of her home, with this
resolution as firmly rooted in her mind as if she had deliberated for
months and months.

"I will not remain with that man another day. Tomorrow I will leave for
England with my son."

How many, in a similar situation, have uttered such vows, to abjure them
when they find themselves face to face with the man who has betrayed
them, and whom they love. Maud was not of that order. Certainly she loved
dearly the seductive Boleslas, wedded against her parents' will the
perfidious one for whom she had sacrificed all, living far from her
native land and her family for years, because it pleased him, breathing,
living, only for him and for their boy. But there was within her--as her
long, square chin, her short nose and the strength of her brow
revealed--the force of inflexibility--which is met with in characters of
an absolute uprightness. Love, with her, could be stifled by disgust, or,
rather, she considered it degrading to continue to love one whom she
scorned, and, at that moment, it was supreme scorn which reigned in her
heart. She had, in the highest degree, the great virtue which is found
wherever there is nobility, and of which the English have made the basis
of their moral education--the religion, the fanaticism of loyalty. She
had always grieved on discovering the wavering nature of Boleslas. But if
she had observed in him, with sorrow, any exaggerations of langua