Luckily they had no children. The fair
complexion (maintained by a Spartan regimen), the fresh, bright color
in her face, which spoke of an engaging modesty, became overspread
with blotches and pimples; her figure, which had seemed so straight,
grew crooked, the angel became a suspicious and shrewish creature who
drove Castanier frantic. Then the fortune took to itself wings. At
length the dragoon, no longer recognizing the woman whom he had
wedded, left her to live on a little property at Strasbourg, until the
time when it should please God to remove her to adorn Paradise. She
was one of those virtuous women who, for want of other occupation,
would weary the life out of an angel with complainings, who pray till
(if their prayers are heard in heaven) they must exhaust the patience
of the Almighty, and say everything that is bad of their husbands in
dovelike murmurs over a game of boston with their neighbors. When
Aquilina learned all these troubles she clung still more
affectionately to Castanier, and made him so happy, varying with
woman's ingenuity the pleasures with which she filled his life, that
all unwittingly she was the cause of the cashier's downfall.
Like many women who seem by nature destined to sound all the depths of
love, Mme.
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