Because the life of excess and ease, of casual tyranny and habitual torment that Wilhelm had enjoyed for decades could never be taken from him now. For all the suffering he had inflicted upon others, upon her, his own discomfort had been but brief. Now, there was no correcting the account. The duke had, in fact, won. And he would continue to win so long as she did not devise some means for keeping him from living and dying in a corner of her mind, over and over, for the rest of her life.
