And I went to live far away from
every one I'd ever known. I chose Dresden. I can hardly tell why, except
that I'd never been there, and I wanted to paint. I stayed at first in a
pension kept by an artist's wife. The artist helped me, and I did very
well with my work. That's what saved me. If I hadn't had that talent,
there would have been only one of two things for me to do: kill myself,
or--worse."
"Let's not think of it, since it's all over," said Mary, gently. She
took Marie by the hand again, and made her sit down on Rose Winter's
chintz covered sofa. Then she sat beside her friend and almost timidly
slid an arm round her waist.
"All over!" the Princess echoed, in a voice so weary and old, so unlike
the bright sleigh-bell gayety Angelo knew, that he would hardly have
recognized his wife. "That's the horrible part--that's the punishment:
never to know whether it's 'all over,' or whether at any minute, just as
one begins to dare feel a little happy and safe, one isn't going to be
found out. For instance, when my husband wanted a villa at Cap Martin.
Once, before I knew we would be coming here, I told him that I'd never
been to the Riviera. It was necessary to tell him that. But, Mary, I had
been. It makes me sick when I think what a short time ago it was. I
came to Monte Carlo with--_him_, and we stopped for weeks at a big
hotel. Every day and all day we were in the Casino. Afterward we went to
Russia, and it was in Russia he left me--in St. Petersburg.
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