And
it is a riddle I mean to solve, too."
The priest shook his head as if he would have said: "Strong men have
given up the task, what can a weak woman do?"
Henrietta told her husband not a word of all this, and the chatter about
the black jewelry gradually died a natural death. Hatszegi sent back her
property to the widow and told her where she could find the vendor--in
Paris. We can readily imagine that she did not go all the way to Paris
to make enquiries, being quite content with getting back her stolen
property.
This incident made such an impression on Henrietta that she avoided all
those circles in which she had been so ruthlessly exposed to insult. A
blush of shame and anger suffused her face whenever she thought of it.
She also abandoned all her work of benevolence among the people. She
began to think that her husband was right after all when he said, as he
did continually: "Let the gentry stick to the gentry, and the poor to
the poor!" In fact she was now inclined to think him right in
everything; the easiest thing a wife can do, she said to herself, is to
trust her husband implicitly. Henceforth Henrietta adopted another mode
of life; her motto now was: "Whatever my husband chooses, for at home he
is my lord!"
So the halls of Hidvar overflowed with guests again, and balls,
_soirees_, and picnics followed each other in quick succession.
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