there was lavish expenditure in many departments of the
establishment. There were magnificent horses in the stables,
gorgeously gilt carriages in the coach-houses, scores of domestics
in bright liveries at every door. The pay of the servants did not,
indeed, exceed the average earnings of a shoe-black in London, but
the coats they wore were exceeding glorious with gold lace.

It was clear from the first that nothing was expected of Don
Lotario's wife but to live peaceably under the patriarchal rule,
making no observations and offering no suggestions. Her husband
told her that he was powerless to introduce any changes, and
added, that since his father and all his ancestors had always
lived in the same way, that way was quite good enough for him.
Indeed, he rather looked forward to the time when he should be
master of the house, having children under him whom he might rule
as absolutely and despotically as he was ruled himself.

In the course of years the Duchessa absorbed the traditions of her
new home, so that they became part of her, and as everything went
on unchanged from year to year she acquired unchanging habits
which corresponded with her surroundings. Then, when at last the
old prince and princess were laid side by side in the vault of the
family chapel and she was princess in her turn, she changed
nothing, but let everything go on in the same groove, educating
her children and managing them, as her husband had been educated
and as she herself had been managed by the old couple. Her husband
grew more and more like his father, punctilious, rigid; a strict
observant in religious matters, a pedant in little things,
prejudiced against all change; too satisfied to desire
improvement, too scrupulously conscientious to permit any