it--the happy marriage in which
we cast into the common lot our ideas and our sorrows, as well as
our good-humor and our affections. Suppress, by all means, in this
partnership, gravity and affectation, yet add a sprinkling of gallantry
and good-fellowship. Preserve even in your intimacy that coquetry you
so readily assume in society. Seek to please your husband. Be amiable.
Consider that your husband is an audience, whose sympathy you must
conquer.

In your manner of loving mark those shades, those feminine delicacies,
which double the price of things. Do not be miserly, but remember that
the manner in which one gives adds to the value of the gift; or rather
do not give--make yourself sought after. Think of those precious jewels
that are arranged with such art in their satin-lined jewel-case; never
forget the case. Let your nest be soft, let your presence be felt in
all its thousand trifles. Put a little of yourself into the ordering of
everything. Be artistic, delicate, and refined--you can do so without
effort--and let your husband perceive in everything that surrounds him,
from the lace on the curtains to the perfume that you use, a wish on
your part to please him.

Do not say to him, "I love you"; that phrase may perhaps recall to him
a recollection or two. But lead him on to say to you, "You do love me,
then?" and answer "No," but with a little kiss which means "Yes." Make
him feel beside you the present to be so pleasant that the past will
fade from his memory; and to this end let nothing about you recall that
past, for, despite himself, he would never forgive it in you. Do not
imitate the women whom he may have known, nor their head-dresses or
toilettes; that would tend to make him believe he has not changed his
manner of life. You have in yourself another kind of grace, another wit,
another coquetry, and above all that rejuvenescence of heart and mind
which those women have never had. You have an eagerness in life, a need
of expansion, a freshness of impression which are--though perhaps you
may not imagine it--irresistible charms. Be yourselves throughout,
and you will be for this loved spouse a novelty, a thousand times more
charming in his eyes than all the bygones possible. Conceal from him
neither your inclinations nor your inexperience, your childish joys or
your childish fears; but be as coquettish with all these as you are of
the features of your face, of your fine, black eyes and your long, fair
hair