indispensable...." "Indispensable."

"I must feel that somebody is thinking of me, always, everywhere. When I
go to sleep and when I wake up, I must know that somebody loves me
somewhere, that I am being dreamt of, longed for. Without that, I should
be wretched, wretched! Oh! yes, unhappy enough to do nothing but cry."
"I am just the same."

"You must remember that anything else is impossible. When a husband has
been nice for six months, or a year, or two years, he necessarily
becomes a brute, yes, a regular brute.... He does not put himself out
for anything, but shows himself just as he is, and makes a scene on the
slightest provocation, or without any provocation whatever. One cannot
love a man with whom one lives constantly." "That is quite true." "Isn't
it?... What was I saying? I cannot the least remember?" "You were saying
that all husbands are brutes!" "Yes, brutes ... all of them." "That is
quite true." "And then?" "What do you mean?" "What was I saying just
then?" "I don't know because you did not say it!" "But I had something
to tell you." "Oh! yes, that is true; well?..." "Oh! I have got it...."
"Well, I am listening." "I was telling you that I can find lovers
everywhere." "How do you manage it?" "Like this. Now follow me
carefully. When I get to some fresh place, I take notes and make my
choice." "You make your choice?" "Yes, of course I do. First of all, I
take notes. I ask questions. Above all, a man must be discreet, rich and
generous; is not that so?" "It is quite true!" "And then he must please
me, as a man." "Of course." "Then I bait the hook for him." "You bait
the hook?" "Yes, just as one does to catch fish. Have you never fished
with a hook and line?" "No, never." "You are wrong; It is very amusing,
and besides that, it is instructive. Well then, I bait the hook...."
"How do you do it?" "How stupid you are. Does not one catch the man one
wants to catch, without their having any choice? And they really think
that they choose ... the fools ... but it is we who choose ...
always.... Just think, when one is not ugly, nor stupid, as is the case
with us, all men aspire to us, all ... without exception. We look them
over from morning till night, and when we have selected one, we fish for
him...." "But that does not tell me how you do it?" "How I do it?...
Why, I do nothing; I allow myself to be looked at, that is all." "You
allow yourself to be looked at?..." "Why yes; that is quite enough. When
one has a