Aliette - La Morte Author:Octave Feuillet Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The marriage of M. de Vaudricourt and of Mlle. de Courteheuse took place early in January the following year. Several weeks were consumed in getting settled in a... more » handsome textit{h6td in the Mouceau quarter, after which M. and Mme. de Vaudricourt started for Italy. A domestic occurrence, which could not be said to have been unexpected, somewhat shortened their jaunt, and brought them back to Paris toward the end of April. It was then, strictly speaking, that the test of an existence in common commenced for them. Unless the lord and master is a monster in human form?which is not often the case?it is seldom that a wife does not experience more or less happiness during the first year of her married life. When, as in Mme. de Vaudricourt's case, she early becomes a mother, the difficultiesof her position are greatly lessened. This new relation forms a ready and fruitful subject of conversation between man and wife, and of equal interest to both. In fact, if the husband, as sometimes happens, still retains pleasing recollections of his former life?if he has commenced to sigh for the pleasures of the club and other masculine resorts?he takes heart of grace and reasons with himself that the present condition of things is only temporary, and that what is deferred is not lost. In this way everything goes smoothly in the new household, and everybody is satisfied: the wife, because she is persuaded that her husband will always be thus gentle, thus domestic; and the husband, because he is thoroughly convinced to the contrary. However, this first and happy period of married life was not to be without its bitter experience for Mme. de Vaudricourt. Poor Aliette, who was not ignorant of the fact that both Bernard and his uncle based their hopes for the perpetuity of their family name on his marr...« less