Her husband, tender and good, wished that she should do nothing but live and love. He had surrounded her with numerous servants, all ready to obey the least of her desires, the slightest of her fancies, to comprehend the most trivial of her wants. She had nothing to do but to let time glide slowly by her.
At length she wearied—languished mysteriously.
Her father, to whom she communicated this strange experience, was astounded. He reminded her of all the sources of happiness which ought to have existed in her case. He took her in his arms and said all he could think of in laudation of the husband who so greatly loved her; gave her innumerable reasons why her happiness ought to have been unparalleled; offered money—more money—wishful to give all the felicities in the world.
She wished for nothing of all that; it only tired, enervated her.
He besought her to be happy; she replied:
"I wish I could be so, for your sake and for that of my husband, whom I love so dearly."
And she struggled against the strange evil which so weighed upon her, against the deadly ennui that was sapping her young life. But the mysterious ill which tormented her soul grew and grew until it became overwhelming.
Greatheart speedily detected her distress, and sought to discover its cause, but ineffectually; and from alarm he passed into despair.
"SHE VOWED FOR HIM A BOUNDLESS LOVE" (p. 176).