CHAPTER 21 The Withered Heart!
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Gradually, his whole treatment of his wife assumed a new character. Daily, since that memorable evening on which he had noted a gentler expression on her face, had she continued changing in his eyes, growing more and more like the true woman of his imagination — yet seeming all the while to recede farther from him.
And she did recede farther and farther every day, rapidly acquiring spiritual qualities and characteristics so different from those of her husband, that actual heart-sympathy was impossible.
Wonderful also was the change in Mrs. Hardy's countenance.
First, the deadly pallor gave place to the faintest life-tints; and the inward-looking, lustreless eyes, grew bright with feeling. Their old depths of beauty were restored. She had once been very lovely. This charm had faded away, until, to common eyes, but little that was attractive remained.
Yet now her beauty was again renewed — not the old beauty, which was of the earth, earthly — but a new beauty, which was of Heaven, heavenly — the beauty as of an angel!
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