Her house, her child, the slaves, her loom, were everything to her.

She rigidly exacted from other women the chaste reserve which was a marked trait in her own character.

Yet she was gentle, and loved me, her only son, beyond aught else.

I think she would have opened her arms to Barine, had she believed that she was necessary to my happiness.

But would the young beauty, accustomed to gay intercourse with distinguished men, have been able to submit to her demands?
When I consider that she cannot help taking into her married life the habit of being surrounded and courted; when I think that the imprudence of a woman accustomed to perfect freedom might set idle tongues in motion, and cast a shadow upon the radiant purity of my name; when I even--" and he raised his clenched right hand.