Eugénie now saw plainly for the first time that her husband had claims to be considered handsome. In earlier days she had not been willing to see this. His languid air and evident want of interest in all around him had outweighed for her those advantages which were now, all at once, brought out into bold relief by the new and unaccustomed stamp of energy imprinted on his countenance and entire bearing; an energy which possibly may have been long latent within him, but which, like so many other qualities had been repressed, and well-nigh crushed, by too early and too satiating an experience of life and its enjoyments. Ah, yes! the world lying perdu beneath was indeed rising from its depths at last, roused by the sound of the approaching storm which alone ...!
Eugénie felt something like bitterness at the thought that she herself had had no share in this awakening, that hers was not the magic charm which had loosed the spell. He had broken through it of his own strength, and needed no help from a stranger's hand.
"I am sorry I had to spoil your ride," said Arthur, breaking the silence at last, but addressing her in his usual tone of distant politeness. "It is a glorious day."
"I am afraid you stand more in need of a ride in the open air than I." The young wife's voice betrayed a perhaps unconscious anxiety. "You are looking pale, Arthur."
"I am not used to work," said he with a kind of bitter pleasantry. "That comes from being so effeminate. I cannot do what the people I employ have to do every day of their lives."
"It seems to me, rather, that you are doing too much, you are pushing it to the very extreme," returned Eugénie, quickly. "All day long you hardly leave your study, and, at night, I see the light burning there until morning."
A sudden flush passed over the young man's face.
"And how long is it since you have favoured the windows of my room with so much attention?" asked he with quiet sarcasm. "I did not suppose you knew of their existence."
She reddened a little now in her turn, but soon overcame her confusion, and answered with firmness:
"Since I have known that the danger you are so determined to make light of is drawing nearer day by day. Why did you deceive me as to the importance of this dispute and its possible consequences?"