19Minna must soon have realized her mistake, seeing Constant’s brooding
concentration, his increasing passion for solitary study in preparing his
work on religion and his unimpaired ability to lash out verbally when
provoked—and often, at this period, when not. Constant likewise came to
rue the day he met her—according to one account he saw her weeping,
asked what was the matter and took pity on her when she said no one
loved her.^23 Minna was nine years older than him, was not beautiful—her
Benjamin constant 132