e
is anything wrong?'

'He never notices my dresses as he used to. Yesterday I changed the bow
I had on, and he made no remark. I know all his cravats, every one of
them. I also know when he has tied them before a glass, and when he has
not. He does not love me as I love him.'

'I am quite happy when my hands are in his, but he is not satisfied with
that; he always wants to kiss me. He loves me with his senses, not with
his heart. They say all men are the same. I thought George was different
from all of them!'

'I have always heard that love is the most sublime joy on earth. I love
and I am loved; yet I want to cry, and I don't know why. Oh, why?'

'Why do I find that Angelina looks better in gray than in red? I ought
to admire her in whatever colour she has on. Should I make such a remark
if my love was intense? Was I a brute for making it before her? She has
been sad ever since. But why does she wear red? Red does not suit a
blonde. Red is for brunettes. Yet, can I tell her that? Of course, I
cannot. I must not imagine that she does not know that herself, and
besides, I should find her beautiful in anything. I am an ass, a silly
ass!'

CHAPTER VII

WHICH SEX WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO BE?

I once heard a Frenchman say, 'My wife could do without me, but I
couldn't do without her;' but, as a rule, the Frenchman who has had the
good fortune of marrying an intelligent wife becomes so dependent on
her, so much under her influence, that no general rule should be drawn
from the remark. When a man and wife have lived happily together, I
find, from my personal observations, that when one has gone, it is
generally the woman who can better do without the man than the reverse.

Of course, the question is very complex, and one which I would rather
ask than answer. If sexes could do one without the other, and resolved
to do it for fifty years, the world would put up its shutters. May not
the question resolve itself into the following: Of old bachelors and old
maids, which are the happier?

Even this question is not a fair one, because it must be admitted that
society, which is very lenient over the peccadilloes of unmarried men,
frowns unmercifully over those of unmarried women. Shall we then say, Of
old bachelors and old maids, who have led monachal lives, which have
been the happier, and would be the more ready to decline matrimony if
the opportunity were again offered to them? Now, can you answer the
question more e