I never hear Mr
Cheney praising other women without a sad and almost resentful
feeling in my heart, realising how superior you are to all of his
favourites." It was the insidious effect of poisoned flattery like
this, which made the Baroness a ruling power in the Cheney household,
and at the same time turned an already cold and unloving wife into a
jealous and nagging tyrant who rendered the young statesman's home
the most dreaded place on earth to him, and caused him to live away
from it as much as possible.
His only child, Alice, a frail, hysterical girl, devoid of beauty or
grace, gave him but little comfort or satisfaction. Indeed she was
but an added disappointment and pain in his life. Indulged in every
selfish thought by her mother and the Baroness, peevish and petulant,
always ailing, complaining and discontented, and still a victim to
the nervous disorders inherited from her mother, it was small wonder
that Senator Cheney took no more delight in the role of father than
he had found in the role of husband.
Alice was given every advantage which money could purchase. But her
delicate health had rendered systematic study of any kind impossible,
and her twentieth birthday found her with no education, with no use
of her reasoning or will powers, but with a complete and beautiful
wardrobe in which to masquerade and air her poor little attempts at
music, art, or conversation.
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