She had given herself to
him altogether--for him she had been half-starved, when, but for him,
she might have lived as a favoured daughter in her aunt's house--for
him she had made it impossible to herself to regard any other man with
a spark of affection--for his sake she had hated her cousin Ziska--
her cousin who was handsome, and young, and rich, and had loved her--
feeling that the very idea that she could accept love from anyone but
Anton had been an insult to her. She had trusted Anton as though his
word had been gospel to her. She had obeyed him in everything, allowing
him to scold her as though she were already subject to his rule; and,
to speak the truth, she had enjoyed such treatment, obtaining from it
a certain assurance that she was already his own. She had loved him
entirely, had trusted him altogether, had been prepared to bear all
that the world could fling upon her for his sake, wanting nothing in
return but that he should know that she was true to him.
This he had not known, nor had he been able to understand such truth.
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