then what? If we had been animals, we should have known that we had
not to talk. But here, on the contrary, it was necessary to talk, and
there were no resources! For that which occupied our minds was not a
thing to be expressed in words.

"And then that silly custom of eating bon-bons, that brutal gluttony
for sweetmeats, those abominable preparations for the wedding, those
discussions with mamma upon the apartments, upon the sleeping-rooms,
upon the bedding, upon the morning-gowns, upon the wrappers, the linen,
the costumes! Understand that if people married according to the old
fashion, as this old man said just now, then these eiderdown coverlets
and this bedding would all be sacred details; but with us, out of ten
married people there is scarcely to be found one who, I do not say
believes in sacraments (whether he believes or not is a matter of
indifference to us), but believes in what he promises. Out of a hundred
men, there is scarcely one who has not married before, and out of fifty
scarcely one who has not made up his mind to deceive his wife.

"The great majority look upon this journey to the church as a condition
necessary to the possession of a certain woman. Think then of the
supreme significance which material details must take on. Is it not a
sort of sale, in which a maiden is given over to a debauche, the sale
being surrounded with the most agreeable details?"

CHAPTER XI.

"All marry in this way. And I did like the rest. If the young people who
dream of the honeymoon only knew what a disillusion it is, and always a
disillusion! I really do not know why all think it necessary to conceal
it.

"One day I was walking among the shows in Paris, when, attracted by a
sign, I entered an establishment to see a bearded woman and a water-dog.
The woman was a man in disguise, and the dog was an ordinary dog,
covered with a sealskin, and swimming in a bath. It was not in the least
interesting, but the Barnum accompanied me to the exit very courteously,
and, in addressing the people who were coming in, made an appeal to my
testimony. 'Ask the gentleman if it is not worth seeing! Come in, come
in! It only costs a franc!' And in my confusion I did not dare to answer
that there was nothing curious to be seen, and it was upon my false
shame that the Barnum must have counted.

"It must be the same with the persons who have passed through the
abominations of the honeymoon. They do not dare to undeceive their
neighb