— that shy creature who cared to mix with no one but the nuns in whose care she had been reared and to whom she was attached. Was it money that tempted him, she being a rich girl and her parents' only child? Or was it that shyness and modesty which never left her — he whose soul had wearied of the brazenness displayed by the girls of this age, who hide it under the veil of refinement and polish?
We know nothing, except that Waked set about completing his new house and furnishing it with the finest furniture and appointments, in keeping with his eminent standing. And from the time of his marriage his friends forgot him, for he withdrew from among them completely: he no longer came to the evening gatherings, no longer frequented the amusement places and cafés he used so often to frequent. So we all lost him. It remains to learn what drove this man to shun the company of his friends and shut himself up in his own house. Was it that he came to hate their society? Or had he renounced the world? No, and again no. Waked, that merry, life-loving young man, married in order to add a new color of gaiety and cheer to his life; but he found himself in a barren desert where nothing of feeling or affection would grow. This wife of his was like arid soil to which love could find no way: love, in her eyes, was depravity, and feeling was illusion and deceit. He set about fostering in her soul a love of life, and read her romantic books, hoping she might come out of her isolation; but she met these attentions of his with nothing but coldness, claiming they made her lose her purity and her decorum.
She understood life ill, and did not know that love is a sacred flame that purifies the heart of sin and transgression.
How could she know — she, so withdrawn into herself — that this sacred bond that tied her to her husband was the very thing to nourish it and knit its ties, making of her home a delicious paradise from which the two together
(Entrechats)
A dancing dress of black taffeta. Among its most striking features is the manner of wearing the gloves: they are attached to the bretelle thrown about the shoulders, lending the costume elegance and novelty.