“Well, what of it?  Can I not take a walk?”

Passions never deceive.  Madame Claes’s anxieties corroborated the rumors she had taken so much pains to deny.  The experience of her youth had taught her to understand the polite pity of the world.  Resolved not to undergo it a second time, she withdrew more and more into the privacy of her own house, now deserted by society and even by her nearest friends.

Among these many causes of distress, the negligence and disorder of Balthazar’s dress, so degrading to a man of his station, was not the least bitter to a woman accustomed to the exquisite nicety of Flemish life.  At first Josephine endeavored, in concert with Balthazar’s valet, Lemulquinier, to repair the daily devastation of his clothing, but even that she was soon forced to give up.  The very day when Balthazar, unaware of the substitution, put on new clothes in place of those that were stained, torn, or full of holes, he made rags of them.

The poor wife, whose perfect happiness had lasted fifteen years, during which time her jealousy had never once been roused, was apparently and suddenly nothing in the heart where she had lately reigned.  Spanish by race, the feelings of a Spanish woman rose within her when she discovered her rival in a Science that allured her husband from her:  torments of jealousy preyed upon her heart and renewed her love.  What could she do against Science?  Should she combat that tyrannous, unyielding, growing power?  Could she kill an invisible rival?  Could a woman, limited by nature, contend with an Idea whose delights are infinite, whose attractions are ever new?  How make head against the fascination of ideas that spring the fresher and the lovelier out of difficulty, and entice a man so far from this world that he forgets even his dearest loves?

At last one day, in spite of Balthazar’s strict orders, Madame Claes resolved to follow him, to shut herself up in the garret where his life was spent, and struggle hand to hand against her rival by sharing her husband’s labors during the long hours he gave to that terrible mistress.  She determined to slip secretly into the mysterious laboratory of seduction, and obtain the right to be there always.  Lemulquinier alone had that right, and she meant to share it with him; but to prevent his witnessing the contention with her husband which she feared at the outset, she waited for an opportunity when the valet should be out of the way.  For a while she studied the goings and comings of the man with angry impatience; did he not know that which was denied to her—­all that her husband hid from her, all that she dared not inquire into?  Even a servant was preferred to a wife!

The day came; she approached the place, trembling, yet almost happy.  For the first time in her life she encountered Balthazar’s anger.  She had hardly opened the door before he sprang upon her, seized her, threw her roughly on the staircase, so that she narrowly escaped rolling to the bottom.