Her
husband was the most cowardly and idiotic of traitors, for he betrayed
her by letting some fresh part of the works pass day by day into the
hands of that fellow Blaise, whose wife no sooner lost a child than she
had another. She, Constance, was enraged also at seeing her husband so
gay and happy, since she had left him to his own base courses. He still
retained his air of victorious superiority, declaring that he had
remained unchanged, and there was truth in this; for though, instead of
being an active master as formerly, he now too often showed himself a
senile prowler, on the high road to paralysis, he yet continued to be a
practical egotist, one who drew from life the greatest sum of enjoyment
possible. He was following his destined road, and if he took to Blaise it
was simply because he was delighted to have found an intelligent,
hard-working young man who spared him all the cares and worries that were
too heavy for his weary shoulders, while still earning for him the money
which he needed for his pleasures. Constance knew that something in the
way of a partnership arrangement was about to be concluded. Indeed, her
husband must have already received a large sum to enable him to make good
certain losses and expenses which he had hidden from her.
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