le,
women are to be found who join them in all the jovial remarks that are
passed on widows.

* * * * *

However, widows are not altogether without their revenge. They get many
advantages. They have the best of young girls in the matrimonial
market. The most-courted woman in the world is the rich young widow.
She has a fascination that very few unmarried women possess, and many
men prefer her. Why? Don't ask me. Widows know the world, have
experience in dealing with men. There are teachers, destitute of
patience, who prefer advanced pupils to beginners. Mere laziness, my
dear friends, nothing else!

Men are so conceited, too! If they were not, how would they dare marry
a widow and constantly run the risk of being found far less loving,
pleasant, and attractive than number one was? It is true that if, after
a quarrel, a man's wife should exclaim, 'How I do regret my first
husband!' he would have a chance to cure her of that expression, by
remarking quietly: 'My dear, you will never regret him as much as I
do!' But all this does not suggest to the mind a happy condition of
matrimonial affairs.

* * * * *

Widows are less marriageable in England than in other countries, for
this reason: that their husbands, in their wills, almost invariably
stipulate that they leave so much to their wives on the condition that
they will not remarry. If they do, they forfeit everything. Of course,
to a certain extent, I understand that a man does not feel anxious to
know that if, by his industry and carefulness, he has succeeded in
amassing a plump little fortune, Smith, Brown, or Robinson will one day
enjoy it in the company of his wife. Still, why not? What does it
matter? If his wife has been good to him and she is still young when he
dies, why should he condemn her to solitude for the rest of her days?
What good does it do to him, when he is under the grass, to have his
wife lonely and miserable? If I were a woman ever so fond of my
husband, I would so much resent that stipulation that I would tear his
will in pieces and marry the first respectable and attractive man who
sought my hand.

Compared to the Englishman who makes such a will, how I admire that
Frenchman who penned the following one: 'I leave to my dear wife, for
her sole and absolute use, everything I possess and everything I may
become possessed of. She may remain a widow or remarry, ju