lacked strength to determine on the continuation of the race. Her
figure possessed none of those essentially feminine characteristics,
which Nature requires for her purposes, and she scorned to hide her
defects by artificial means.

The few women friends she had, found her cold and indifferent towards
everything connected with the sex problem. She treated it with
contempt, considered the relationship between the sexes disgusting,
and could not understand how a woman could give herself to a man. In
her opinion Nature was unclean; to wear clean underlinen, starched
petticoats and stockings without holes was to be virtuous; poor was
merely another term for dirt and vice.

Every summer she spent with her father on their estate in the country.

She was no great lover of the country. Nature made her feel small; she
found the woods uncanny, the lake made her shudder, there was danger
hidden in the tall meadow-grass. She regarded the peasants as cunning
and rather filthy beasts. They had so many children, and she had no
doubt that both boys and girls were full of vice. Nevertheless they
were always invited to the manor house on Midsummer day and on the
general's birthday, to play the part of the chorus of grand opera,
that is to say, to cheer and dance, and look like the figures in a
painting.

It was springtime. Helena, on her thoroughbred mare, had penetrated
into the depths of the country. She felt tired and dismounted; she
fastened her mare to a birchtree which grew near an enclosure. Then
she strolled along by the side of a ditch and began to gather wild
orchids. The air was soft and balmy, steam was rising from the ground.