Old Vrain took again to his morphia, and nothing would restrain him; then Lydia and Diana fought constantly, and each wished the other out of the house.

I tried to keep the peace, and blamed Lyddy--who is no saint, I admit--for the way in which she was treating Diana.

With Miss Vrain I got on very well, and tried to make things easy for her; but in the end the ill-will between her and my Lydia became so strong that Diana left the house, and went out to Australia to live with some relatives.
"So Lydia and I and old Vrain were left alone, and I thought that everything would be right.

So it would have been if Lydia had not put matters wrong again by inviting Ferruci over to stay.

But she would insist upon doing so, and although I begged and prayed and commanded her not to have so dangerous a man in the house, she held her own; and in the face of my remonstrances, and those of her husband, Count Ferruci came to stay with us.
"From the moment he entered the house there was nothing but trouble.
Vrain became jealous, and, mad with drugs he took, often treated Lydia with cruelty and violence, and she came to me for protection.