"You may put it like that if you like: though the expression seems to me rather too flippant to describe her experiences. Her husband ill-treated her." "Do you mean that he beat her?" "Yes, he ill-treated her physically. But now comes something, Prince, which you too will not have heard about before. She gave me to understand that he ill-treated her not only in a temper, not only in anger and rage, but also without being exasperated, simply for his own satisfaction. I mean, that his caresses were so revolting as to amount to ill-treatment." Klaus Heinrich was silent. Both looked very grave. At last he asked: "Did the Countess have any children?" "Yes, two. They died quite young, both only a few weeks old, and that's the greatest sorrow the Countess has had to bear. It would seem from her hints that it was the fault of the loose women for whom her husband betrayed her that the children died directly after birth." Both remained silent, and their eyes clouded over. "Add to that," continued Imma Spoelmann, "that he dissipated his wife's dowry, at cards and with women--a respectable dowry it was too--and after her parents' death her whole fortune also. Relations of hers too helped him once, when he was near having to leave the service on account of his debts. But then came a scandal, an altogether revolting one, in which he was involved and which did for him once and for all." "What was it?" asked Klaus Heinrich. "I can't exactly tell you, Prince. But, according to what the Countess has let slip about it, it was a scandal of the very grossest description--we agreed just now that there are generally no limits in that direction." "And then he went to America?" "You're right there, Prince. I can't help admiring your 'cuteness." "Please go on, Miss Spoelmann. I've never heard anything like the Countess's story." "No more had I; so you can imagine what an impression it made on me when she came to us. Well, then, Count Löwenjoul bolted to America with the police at his heels, leaving pretty considerable debts behind of course. And the Countess went with him." "She went with him? Why?" "Because she still loved him, in spite of everything--she loves him still--and because she was determined to share his life whatever happened. He took her with him, though, because he had a better chance of getting help from her relations as long as she was with him. The relations sent him one further instalment of money from home, and then stopped--they finally buttoned up their pockets; and when Count Löwenjoul saw that his wife was no more use to him, he just left her--left her in absolute destitution and cleared out." "I knew it," said Klaus Heinrich, "I expected as much. Just what does happen."