nd annoyances that hinder happiness. Would she, in after years, have
sufficient tact and insight to distinguish Paul's noble qualities in the
midst of his minor defects? Would she not magnify the latter and forget
the former, after the manner of young wives who know nothing of life?
There comes a time when wives will pardon defects in the husband who
spares her annoyances, considering annoyances in the same category as
misfortunes. What conciliating power, what wise experience would uphold
and enlighten the home of this young pair? Paul and his wife would
doubtless think they loved when they had really not advanced beyond the
endearments and compliments of the honeymoon. Would Paul in that early
period yield to the tyranny of his wife, instead of establishing his
empire? Could Paul say, "No?" All was peril to a man so weak where even
a strong man ran some risks.

The subject of this Study is not the transition of a bachelor into a
married man,--a picture which, if broadly composed, would not lack the
attraction which the inner struggles of our nature and feelings give to
the commonest situations in life. The events and the ideas which led to
the marriage of Paul with Natalie Evangelista are an introduction to
our real subject, which is to sketch the great comedy that precedes, in
France, all conjugal pairing. This Scene, until now singularly neglected
by our dramatic authors, although it offers novel resources to their
wit, controlled Paul's future life and was now awaited by Madame
Evangelista with feelings of terror. We mean the discussion which takes
place on the subject of the marriage contract in all families, whether
noble or bourgeois, for human passions are as keenly excited by small
interests as by large ones. These comedies, played before a notary, all
resemble, more or less, the one we shall now relate, the interest of
which will be far less in the pages of this book than in the memories of
married persons.

CHAPTER III. THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT--FIRST DAY

At the beginning of the winter of 1822, Paul de Manerville made a formal
request, through his great-aunt, the Baronne de Maulincour, for the hand
of Mademoiselle Natalie Evangelista. Though the baroness never stayed
more than two months in Medoc, she remained on this occasion till the
last of October, in order to assist her nephew through the affair and
play the part of a mother to him. After conveying the first suggestions
to Madame Evangelista the