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old silks, elegant furniture loaded with priceless ornaments, and inviting smaller rooms,
perfumed, made for afternoon chats with close friends - famous, sought after men, who
all women envy and desire.

When she sat down to dinner at a round table covered with a three-day-old cloth opposite
her husband who, lifting the lid off the soup, shouted excitedly, “Ah! Beef stew! What
could be better,” she dreamed of fine dinners, of shining silverware, of tapestries which

peopled the walls with figures from another time and strange birds in fairy forests. She
dreamed of delicious dishes served on wonderful plates, of whispered gallantries listened
to with an inscrutable smile as one ate the pink flesh of a trout or the wings of a quail.

She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing; and these were the
only things she loved. She felt she was made for them alone.
What you Think?ou Think?
She wanted so much to charm, to be envied, to be desired What y

and sought after.
Why did she suffer ?
She had a rich friend, a former schoolmate at the convent,

whom she no longer wanted to visit because she suffered so
much when she came home. For whole days afterwards she
would weep with sorrow, regret, despair and misery.

One evening her husband came home with an air of triumph, holding a large envelope
in his hand.

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The English Carnival-7