last, the mayor, the aldermen, and the landlord, all nearly drunk, shook
hands with LOUVET, and wished him a good journey, swore he was a _true
sans culotte_; but, he says, that the 'sharp-sighted woman, who was to
be deceived by none of his stories or professions, saw him get off with
deep and manifest disappointment and chagrin.' I have thought of this
many times since, when I have had occasion to witness the
quick-sightedness and penetration of women. The same quality that makes
them, as they notoriously are, more quick in discovering expedients in
cases of difficulty, makes them more apt to penetrate into motives and
character.

191. I now come to a matter of the greatest possible importance; namely,
that great troubler of the married state, that great bane of families,
JEALOUSY; and I shall first speak of _jealousy_ in the _wife_. This is
always an unfortunate thing, and sometimes fatal. Yet, if there be a
great propensity towards it, it is very difficult to be prevented. One
thing, however, every husband can do in the way of prevention; and that
is, _to give no ground for it_. And here, it is not sufficient that he
strictly adhere to his marriage vow; he ought further to abstain from
every art, however free from guilt, calculated to awaken the slightest
degree of suspicion in a mind, the peace of which he is bound by every
tie of justice and humanity not to disturb, or, if he can avoid it, to
suffer it to be disturbed by others. A woman that is very fond of her
husband, and this is the case with nine-tenths of English and American
women, does not like to share with another any, even the smallest
portion, not only of his affection, but of his assiduities and applause;
and, as the bestowing of them on another, and receiving payment in kind,
can serve no purpose other than of gratifying one's _vanity_, they ought
to be abstained from, and especially if the gratification be to be
purchased with even the chance of exciting uneasiness in her, whom it is
your sacred duty to make as happy as you can.

192. For about two or three years after I was married, I, retaining some
of my military manners, used, both in France and America, to _romp_ most
famously with the girls that came in my way; till one day, at
Philadelphia, my wife said to me, in a very gentle manner, 'Don't do
that: _I do not like it_.' That was quite enough: I had never _thought_
on the subject before: one hair of her head was more dear to me than all
the