She feels with
vexation that her weakness is ready to betray her at any moment. She
punishes you for it, and she punishes herself by being unkind to you.
But you may be sure that one day of such caprice advances the progress
of a lover more than a year of care and assiduity. A woman soon begins
to regret her unkindness; she deems herself unjust; she desires to
repair her fault, and she becomes benevolent.
What surprises me the most is the marked passage in your letter which
states that since the Countess has appeared to love you, her
character has totally changed. I have no particular information on
that point. All I know is, that she made her debut in society as a
lady of elegance, and her debut was all the more marked because,
during the life of her husband, her conduct was entirely the contrary.
Do you not remember when you first made her acquaintance, that she was
lively even to giddiness, heedless, bold, even coquettish, and
appeared to be incapable of a reasonable attachment? However, to-day,
you tell me, she has become a serious melancholic; pre-occupied,
timid, affected; sentiment has taken the place of mincing airs; at
least she appears to so fit in with the character she assumes to-day,
that you imagine it to be her true one, and her former one, borrowed.
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