She knew the character of Olga Brancka, also, too well not to know that her own mortification would be the sweetest triumph for one of whose latent envy she had long been conscious. Ever since she had become the sole owner of the vast fortunes of the Szalras she had felt for ever upon her the evil eye of a foiled covetousness. The other had been very young, and had waited long and patiently, but her hour had now come.
She said nothing to her husband, and she preserved to her cousin's wife the same perfect courtesy of manner; but in her own soul she began to suffer keenly, more from a sense of littleness in him than any mere personal feeling. To blame him, to entreat him, to seek to detach him—all these things were impossible to her.
'If all our years of union do not hold him, what will?' she thought; and the great natural hauteur of her temper could never have let her bend to the solicitation of a constancy denied to her.
One night, when they had no engagements but a ball, to which they could go at midnight, he did not come in to dinner. Always before, when he had not returned to dine, he had sent her a message to beg her not to wait. This evening there was no message. She and the Princess dined alone.
'He was never discourteous before,' said the Princess, who disliked such omissions.
'It is his own house,' said Wanda. 'He has a right to come or not to come as he likes, without ceremony.'
'There can never be too much ceremony,' said the Princess. 'It preserves amiability, self-respect, and good manners. It is the silver sheath which saves them from friction. It is the distinguishing mark between the gentleman and the boor. When politeness is only for the street or the salon, it is but a poor thing. He has always been so scrupulous in these matters.'
As Wanda later crossed the head of the grand staircase, to go and dress for the ball, she heard her maître d'hôtel in the hall below speak to the groom of the chambers.
'Are the Marquis's horses in, do you know?' asked the former; and the latter answered:
'Yes, hours ago; they are to go for him at the Union at eleven, but they left him at the Hôtel Brancka.'