carried on fiercely in every house, in every family; many hearts will
break, many wounds be given, and many tears be shed before we snail have
household peace. All those fond ties which united men and women,
parents and children, have been shaken, or torn apart; all contracts
are destroyed or undermined. In order to endure, to live through
these fearful seven years, every one gave himself up to frivolity--the
terrible consequence is, that the whole world has become light-minded
and frivolous. We do not look upon life with the same eyes as formerly.
To enjoy the present moment--to snatch that chance of happiness from
the fleeting hour, which the next hour is chasing and may utterly
destroy--seems the only aim. Love is an amusement, constancy a phantom,
in which no one believes--which is only spoken of in nursery fairy
tales. The women have learned, by experience, that their husbands and
lovers did not die of longing to see them; that they themselves, after
the tears of separation, which perhaps flowed freely a long time, were
once quenched, could live on alone; that independence had its bright
side and was both agreeable and comfortable. The history of the widow
of Ephesus is repeated every day, my friend. The women wept and were
melancholy a long time after the separation from their husbands, but
at last they could not close their ears to the sweet, soft words of
consolation which were whispered to them; at last they realized that
incessant weeping and mourning had its wearisome and monotonous
side, that the dreary time flew more swiftly if they sought to amuse
themselves and be happy. They allowed themselves to be comforted, in the
absence of their husbands, by their lovers, and they felt no reproach
of conscience; for they were convinced that their truant husbands were
doing the same thing in their long separation--were making love to 'the
lips that were near.'"

"Did you think and act thus, Louisa?" said Major du Trouffle, in a sad
and anxious tone, looking his wife firmly in the eye.

Louisa laughed with calm and unconcern.

"My friend," said she, "would I have told all this to you, if I had
committed the faults I charge upon others? I have been inactive but
observant; that has been my amusement, my only distraction, and my
observations have filled me with amazement and abhorrence. I have drawn
from these sources profound and philosophic lessons. I have studied
mankind, and with full conviction I can assure you t