she quite understood that that was not enough to satisfy a man accustomed to a wider range of pursuits.  She had looked forward with anxiety to the moment when mere love-making would pall upon him, and he would begin to be bored, and wish for a change.  She had kept a sharp lookout for the approach of this ticklish moment that her ingenious mind might have some fresh interest ready for him.  This trouble had been spared her.  He himself took thought for a suitable occupation to fill up his time.  So much the better.  He had adapted himself to the circumstances, after all.  He no longer looked upon it as a passing liaison, but had settled down permanently and finally to lead his accustomed life with her.

It took a weight off her mind, and gave her a sense of peace and security such as she had not known since the return to Paris.  She too began to come out of her shell, and to resume her former mode of life.  She fulfilled her social duties, and paid and received calls, which Wilhelm was allowed to shirk.  At the end of January the first ball of the Spanish embassy took place.  Pilar’s whole set was invited, and she could not well absent herself without exciting remark.  She therefore made the necessary preparations for the festivity.  A diadem of brilliants was sent to be reset, a sensational gown composed, after repeated conferences with a great ladies’ tailor, a pattern in seed pearls chosen for the embroidery of the long gloves.  Don Pablo galloped about like a post-horse from morning till night; gorgeous vans, with liveried attendants, from the fashionable shops stopped constantly at the door to deliver parcels; there was an unceasing stream of messengers, shop people, and needlewomen.  But Wilhelm was oblivious of it all; Pilar did not trouble him with such frivolous matters.  It was not till the very day of the ball that she handed him the card of invitation she had procured for him at the embassy, and asked, as a precaution: 

“You have all you require, have you not?”

Wilhelm glanced at the pink, glazed card.

“But, Pilar, do you know me so little?”

“I know that you do not care for these stupid entertainments,” she answered coaxingly, “but I thought you would go to please me.”

“So you are going?” he asked.

“I must,” she replied.  “They know that I am in Paris, and I wish to avoid the remark that would be made if I stayed away.”

“You are quite right,” said Wilhelm, “but you will have to go without me.”

“Don’t be a bear!” she urged.  “It will interest you to see this side of Parisian life.  I don’t say that I would ask you to do it often, but you might—­just this once.  Beside, you have been more than three months in Paris, and you do not know one real Parisian.  Now, here is an opportunity of meeting artists, authors, academicians, senators—­ and there are some remarkable men among them, well worth talking to.”

“I am sincerely grateful,” he returned, and kissed her hand.  “Please do not trouble about it.  I am quite sure that there are many people in Paris I should like to meet, but they are scarcely likely to be present at an embassy ball.  And even if they were, a mere introduction, an interchange of society platitudes, would not bring me any further.  No; go you to your ball, and leave me at home.”