On my own part, I shunned every opportunity, which could have interrupted his tender endeavors, and avoided being alone with Caroline. Hardly could I be pervailed upon to sit at table with them, and then used to be quite neutral and deaf to all their family-concerns. The rest of my time was spent in visiting our neighbors, making fresh acquaintances, giving fetes and balls,—in short, I was now generally to be met with any where but at the castle.
CHAP. XII.
Caroline was grieved at this change.
The constant presence of her husband, and his tender marks of regard, became truly detestable to her. If I pleased her before, my almost continual absence now rendered me the most adorable of all mortals in her eyes. Distance served to render my character more amiable, jealousy added still more to its attractives, and Caroline's blood was wholly infected with the corroding poison of illicit love. Absorbed in a deep and speechless melancholy she became a real pro-
