lost
herself under the influence of the professional seducer Francueil,
and, completely carried away by that passion, she cries out, in her
memoirs: _Francueil, Francueil, tu m'as perdue, et tu disais que tu
m'aimais_ [You have undone me--and you said you loved me]! Such was
the lot, as was seen, of most women of those days, who had noble
intentions, but a woman's weakness. The century did not demand
faithfulness to the marital vows; but when a woman had once abandoned
herself to love, it required that the attachment be to a man of honor
and standing. Marriage was simply a preliminary step to freedom;
after that ceremony came the natural election of the heart and mutual
tenderness of the beings who could be mated only through the freedom
which married life afforded. A superior illegitimate liaison was
nothing unnatural--on the contrary, it was but a natural human
selection; such was the nature of the affection of Mme. d'Epinay for
this debauche Francueil.

As she enjoyed absolute liberty, her lover paid his respects to her at
Epinay; there he inaugurated amusements and took his friends. It
was he who suggested the erection of a theatre at which her friends'
productions might be offered to the world of critics. Through his
efforts, the great men who made her salon famous were gathered at "La
Chevrette," where the actors and players soon drew the attention of
literary Paris. After a year or two of attachment, Francueil became
indifferent to Mme. d'Epinay and transferred his affections to an
actress--the sister of M. d'Epinay's mistress. Thus runs the story of
the life of the average married woman. If she remained virtuous,
she usually became resigned to her fate and lived happily; if she
undertook to imitate her husband's tactics, she fell from the good
graces of one lover to those of another, ending her life in absolute
wretchedness.

These two men--the lover and the husband--carried on with two sisters
their licentious living and extravagances to such an extent that the
injured wife demanded a separation of her fortune from that of her
husband, in which project her father-in-law aided her and gave her
thirteen thousand francs income. Mme. d'Epinay, in the midst of
success, became acquainted with Mlle. Quinault, the daughter of the
famous actor of the time, and herself a great actress. This woman
invited Mme. d'Epinay to her so-called salon, which was, possibly, the
most licentious and irreligious of the salons then i