She sought no one, but to those who came to her she never refused
help--more or less. She made herself well acquainted with the
facts of each case; no one could ever deceive her. Whether she
gave much or little, she imposed no conditions, she never lectured
them. Her opinion was expressed by the amount that she gave.
Her husband's behaviour towards her was such that, had she not
been very popular, she could not have remained at Hellebergene;
that is to say, he opposed and thwarted her in every way he could;
but every one took her part.
The boy! Could not he have been a bond of union? On the contrary,
there were those who declared that it was from the time of his
birth that things had gone amiss between the parents. The first
time that his father saw him the nurse reported that he "came in
like a lord and went out like a beggar!" The mother lay down again
and laughed; the nurse had never seen the like of it before. Had
he expected that his child must of necessity resemble him, only to
find it the image of its mother?
When the boy was old enough he loved to wander across to his
father's rooms where there were so many curious things to see; his
father always received him kindly, talking in a way suited to his
childish intelligence, but he would take occasion to cut away a
quantity of his hair.
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