hich he has never before been absent, since our marriage.
But you see my ambition has become limited; I am satisfied if he lets me
alone." Giselle spoke these words with emphasis, and then she added: "and
lets me bring up his son my own way. That is all I ask."

Jacqueline thought in her heart that it was wrong to ask so little, that
poor Giselle did not know how to make the best of her husband, and,
curious to find out what line of conduct would serve best to subjugate
M. de Talbrun, she became herself--that is to say, a born coquette
--venturing from one thing to another, like a child playing fearlessly
with a bulldog, who is gentle only with him, or a fly buzzing round a
spider's web, while the spider lies quietly within.

She would tease him, contradict him, and make him listen to long pieces
of scientific music as she played them on the piano, when she knew he
always said that music to him was nothing but a disagreeable noise; she
would laugh at his thanks when a final chord, struck with her utmost
force, roused him from a brief slumber; in short, it amused her to prove
that this coarse, rough man was to her alone no object of fear. She would
have done better had she been afraid.

Thus it came to pass that, as they rode together through some of the
prettiest roads in the most beautiful part of Normandy, M. de Talbrun
began to talk, with an ever-increasing vivacity, of the days when they
first met, at Treport, relating a thousand little incidents which
Jacqueline had forgotten, and from which it was easy to see that he had
watched her narrowly, though he was on the eve of his own marriage. With
unnecessary persistence, and stammering as he was apt to do when moved by
any emotion, he repeated over and over again, that from the first moment
he had seen her he had been struck by her--devilishly struck by her--he
had been, indeed! And one day when she answered, in order not to appear
to attach any importance to this declaration, that she was very glad of
it, he took an opportunity, as their horses stopped side by side before a
beautiful sunset, to put his arm suddenly round her waist, and give her a
kiss, so abrupt, so violent, so outrageous, that she screamed aloud. He
did not remove his arm from her, his coarse, red face drew near her own
again with an expression that filled her with horror. She struggled to
free herself, her horse began to rear, she screamed for help with all her
might, but nothing answered her save