But with the exception of the discomfort caused him by this silent
witness, his happiness was unalloyed. He lived in a constant rapture
of the senses, and Pilar took good care that he should not awake
from it. She never left him to himself, except during the two hours
in the morning which she devoted to her toilette. It was her
peculiar habit to steal away in the early morning while Wilhelm was
still asleep, and repair noiselessly to the dressing-room, where
Anne was already waiting, and where she gave herself up into the
skilled hands of the maid, who kneaded her, washed and rubbed her,
and treated her hands, feet, and hair with consummate art, and the
aid of an army of curious instruments and an exhaustive collection
of cosmetics. She would then appear to wake Wilhelm with a kiss. On
opening his eyes it was to see her in the full glory of her beauty,
with the flush of health upon her cheeks, with rosy fingers, her
skin cool, soft and perfumed, her eyes bright, her lips smiling, and
her magnificent hair in order. But from that moment onward she was
always about him, nestling close to him when they were alone, her
eyes on his when they walked arm in arm through the streets.
In the morning she bathed in the sea while Wilhelm sat on the shore
and watched her.
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