And it was amid all this gay animation that the company separated
after exchanging all sorts of embraces and handshakes.
Once in the brougham, Constance spoke but seldom to Charlotte, taking as
a pretext a violent headache which the prolonged lunch had increased.
With a weary air and her eyes half closed she began to reflect. After
Rose's death, and when little Christophe likewise had been carried off, a
revival of hope had come to her, for all at once she had felt quite young
again. But when she consulted Boutan on the matter he dealt her a final
blow by informing her that her hopes were quite illusive. Thus, for two
months now, her rage and despair had been increasing. That very morning
at that christening, and now in that carriage beside that young woman who
was again expecting to become a mother, it was this which poisoned her
mind, filled her with jealousy and spite, and rendered her capable of any
evil deed. The loss of her son, the childlessness to which she was
condemned, all threw her into a state of morbid perversity, fraught with
dreams of some monstrous vengeance which she dared not even confess to
herself. She accused the whole world of being in league to crush her.
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