The simple fact remained that
Lebel was dead, of course the cruel and unjust consequence
became in the hands of my enemies, that I had been the principal
accessory to it.
My most trifling actions were misrepresented with the same black
malignity. They even made it a crime in me to have written to
madame de Bearn, thanking her for her past kindnesses, and thus
setting her at liberty to retire from the mercenary services she
pretended to have afforded me. And who could blame me for seeking
to render myself independent of her control, or for becoming weary
of the tyrannical guidance of one who had taken it into her head
that I had become her sole property, and who, in pursuance of
this idea, bored and tormented me to death with her follies and
exactions, and even took upon herself to be out of humor at the
least indication of my attaching myself to any other lady of the
court. According to her view of things, gratitude imposed on me
the rigorous law of forming an intimacy with her alone; in a word,
she exercised over me the most galling dominion, which my family
had long counselled me to shake off; in truth, I was perfectly
tired of bearing the yoke her capricious and overbearing temper
imposed upon me, but I determined, if possible, to do nothing
hastily, and to endure it with patience as long as I could. But
now that the number of my female friends was augmented by the
addition of the marquise de Montmorency and the comtesse de
l'Hopital I determined no longer to bear the constant display of
madame de Bearn's despotic sway, and finding no chance of accommodating
our tastes and humors, I resolved to free myself from her thraldom.
Pages:
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257