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RECOGNITION.11not conscious of the changeinher mannertowardshim. She did not know that the strange repulsionshe sometimes felt, and yvhich she told herselfwasmerely physical nervousness,had so told uponher, that she was absent and distant with him forthe most part, and in the occasional spasmodicburstsof love which she yielded to showed suchhaunting and harrowinggrief as sometimes nearlymaddenedhim with anger, with disgust, yvithennui — not with repentance,not with compassion— maddened him, not for her sake, but for hisown.The transition, effected by the aid of his intenseselfishness, from his former state of feehngtowards Harriet, to one which required only theintervention of any active cause to become hatred,was not a difficult matter to a man like Routh.Having lost all her former charm, and much ofher previous usefulness, she soonbecame to hima disagreeable reminder. Something more thanthat — the mental superiority of the woman, yvhichhad never before incommoded him, now becamepositively- hateful to him.It earned with it,nowthat it was no longer his mainstay, a power which