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he need any gratification that she was unable to bestow? This was the only
cloud in the azure of her happiness.
His passage to power had been full of pain to both. He however attained his
wish; he filled the situation for which nature seemed to have moulded him.
His activity was fed in wholesome measure, without either exhaustion or
satiety; his taste and genius found worthy expression in each of the modes
human beings have invented to encage and manifest the spirit of beauty; the
goodness of his heart made him never weary of conducing to the well-being
of his fellow-creatures; his magnificent spirit, and aspirations for the
respect and love of mankind, now received fruition; true, his exaltation
was temporary; perhaps it were better that it should be so. Habit would not
dull his sense of the enjoyment of power; nor struggles, disappointment and
defeat await the end of that which would expire at its maturity. He
determined to extract and condense all of glory, power, and achievement,
which might have resulted from a long reign, into the three years of his
Protectorate.
Raymond was eminently social. All that he now enjoyed would have been
devoid of pleasure to him, had it been unparticipated. But in Perdita he
possessed all that his heart could desire. Her love gave birth to sympathy;
her intelligence made her understand him at a word; her powers of intellect
enabled her to assist and guide him. He felt her worth. During the early
years of their union, the inequality of her temper, and yet unsubdued
self-will which tarnished her character, had been a slight drawback to the
fulness of his sentiment. Now that unchanged serenity, and gentle
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