When he asked, "My dear wife, how are you to-day ?" she answered, "Better, dear friend," and made him think she would be up and recovered on the morrow.

His preoccupation was so great that he accepted this reply, and believed the illness of which his wife was dying a mere indisposition.

Dying to the eyes of the world, in his alone she was living.
A complete separation between husband and wife was the result of this year.

Claes slept in a distant chamber, got up early in the morning, and shut himself into his laboratory or his study.

Seeing his wife only in presence of his daughters or of the two or three friends who came to visit them, he lost the habit of communicating with her.