There soon came a time when he would have willingly
freed himself altogether from the constraint of her presence.
He travelled almost incessantly, spending the summer and
autumn at the German watering-places; the winter in France, or
Belgium, or Italy; and he would sometimes propose that she
should remain at a Paris hotel till he could return to her. In
the first years after their marriage she objected vehemently.
She was so young, so unused to solitude, that she felt a
certain terror at the prospect of being left alone; and,
moreover, she still clung with a sort of desperation to her
girlish illusions, and, loving her husband, could not cease to
believe in his love for her. She had plans, too, for reforming
him, and for a long time would not allow herself to be
convinced of their utter vanity and hopelessness. After the
death of her little boys, however, she became more
indifferent, or more resigned. And so it came to pass that
when she had been married about six years, and four months
after her third child was born, Madame Linders died, alone at
a Paris hotel, with no one near her but the doctor, her baby's
nurse, and the woman of the house.
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