“Etiquette was slack. Catherine herself relaxed from the business of affairs of State, gave intimate parties from which her son was naturally excluded, and generally left him to his own devices. He was at liberty to please himself, and the fount of all his pleasure, the mainspring of his life, was Natalie Alexeievna. He was so hopelessly in love with her that his subjection would have been ridiculous if it had not strengthened him in other ways. He insisted on her company for every minute of the... day, dismissed his equerries and her ladies-in-waiting, and, clasping her hand in his, hurried her away into romantic solitude. He never tired of watching her, of admiring her beauty, of listening to the tone of her sweet voice, and he loved her with a passion that was almost frenzy. His shyness had given place to manhood and growing confidence, his step was firm, his glance direct, and in his treatment of his wife, he was tenderness itself. And like all lovers, he was mercifully blind. The essential shallowness of her nature and weakness of character eluded him; he worshipped in happy ignorance of the fact that his bride was neither in love with him nor as trustworthy as he supposed.MoreLessRead More Read Less
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