The sequel to Princess Napraxine, set ten years after the dramatic events which ended up in Nadine Napraxine and Othmar marrying. The ardour of their early relationship (if one can quite call it that) has cooled, and they wonder what the next chapter has in store. “Love is a volatile precipitate, and marriage a solvent in which it disappears” (Nadine to Othmar, p.25).
The indifference Nadine feels for her husband is challenged when she discovers he has helped a poor girl, Damaris, who is also an aspiring actress, better her situation. Even though nothing physical has transpired between the pair, Nadine assumes Damaris has become Othmar’s mistress. She is surprised to find she cares, and feels emotions that surprise her - envy and anger. Damaris does love Othmar, she explains the situation thus: “He saved me from the streets… He has been as an angel to me. He does not care for me except in pity. He loves her. I would give my body and soul to him if he wished for them. But he does not” (p.352).As nothing has happened between the two she is deeply wounded by the idea that Nadine - such a magnetic, beautiful, and important woman, who has the love of the one person she, Damaris cares for - should have formed an implacable (and incorrect assumption) of her. When she encounters Nadine she explains the truth of the innocence of hers and Othmar’s relationship, but it falls on deaf ears. In shock, following this encounter, Damaris wanders down the streets of her youth; and when she meets a friend whose child lies dying, she takes it as an opportunity to end her suffering also. Should she also die, after nursing the fatally ill child, she hopes that her death will give credence to her story as her voice was unable to do in life.
First published in 1885, the year after Princess Napraxine.
Boards rather scuffed, some losses to the paper covered boards at extremities, corners, joints, and at head and tail of spine. Ownership inscription in pencil on verso of titlepage. First 6 pages with thumbing and light foxing, otherwise internally clean.
