by being covered up as by being left uncovered. Graslin himself lived
almost entirely on the ground-floor of the house, where he had his
office, and resumed his old business habits with avidity. He thought
himself an excellent husband because he went upstairs to breakfast and
dined with his wife; but his unpunctuality was so great that it was
not more than ten times a month that he began a meal with he; he had
exacted, out of courtesy, that she should never wait for him.
Veronique did, however, always remain in the room while her husband
took his meals, serving him herself, that she might at least perform
voluntarily some of the visible obligations of a wife.

The banker, to whom the things of marriage were very indifferent, and
who had seen nothing in his wife but seven hundred and fifty thousand
francs, had never once perceived Veronique's repugnance to him. Little
by little he now abandoned Madame Graslin for his business. When he
wished to put a bed in the room adjoining his office on the
ground-floor, Veronique hastened to comply with the request. So that
three years after their marriage these two ill-assorted beings returned
to their original estate, each equally pleased and happy to do so. The
moneyed man, possessing eighteen hundred thousand francs, returned
with all the more eagerness to his old avaricious habits because he
had momentarily quitted them. His two clerks and the office-boy were
better lodged and rather better fed, and that was the only difference
between the present and the past. His wife had a cook and maid (two
indispensable servants); but except for the actual necessities of
life, not a penny left his coffers for his household.

Happy in the turn which things were now taking, Veronique saw in the
evident satisfaction of the banker the absolution for this separation
which she would never have asked for herself. She had no conception