her life of independence had strengthened her. He had told her

outright that it was this that constituted the happiness of life,

and he called it poetical and aesthetic.

Everybody lived for himself only, for his pleasure, and all the

talk concerning God and righteousness was deception. And if

sometimes doubts arose in her mind and she wondered why

everything was so ill-arranged in the world that all hurt each

other, and made each other suffer, she thought it best not to