f-confidence is peculiarly vulnerable where women be concerned,
since,

As no man knows what it is appeals to a woman, he does not know on what
to pride himself:

Even an Othello is jealous of even an Iago. Yet

It is only the spectators who see the folly of Othello.
Desdemonas usually are helpless as they are oblivious.

* * *

The illicitly favored lover is never jealous of the husband; but of
another illicitly favored lover, how jealous he is. But

Jealousy, like modesty, and like virtue, varies with every time and
clime: what is customary in Cairo would rouse consternation in Kent, and
what goes on in Vienna shocks New England. So,

How the husband favored lover differs also with every time and clime:
here he is mulcted in damages, there he is shot down, in a third place he
is tolerated.

How the woman thinks her husband should treat the illicitly favored lover
--that you shall never find out.

* * *

The edacity of jealousy is unappeasable:

A wronged lover, in his pain, looks for more pain to bear: like a martyr
in an ecstasy, he cries out for further tortures. In love one always
sees higher unreachable heights; in jealousy always deeper unreachable
depths. And

There is no wound but leaves its cicatrix.

* * *

Mistrust an unexpected change of front. So,

Does your erstwhile frowning lady smile? "cherchez l'homme", or la femme.
Since

To arouse jealousy in another feminine breast is sometimes the motive of
feminine complaisance. Indeed,

Few women can forgo an opportunity of arousing jealousy, whether in a
feminine or in a masculine breast.--Bethink thee of this little fact, O
man, when next thy lady comports herself thee wards ultra-graciously.

To see the girl of thy heart--even if so be she not thine, nor not
nearly thine--comport herself with another as she does with thee--ah!
that gives a twinge to the masculine heart. Nay, lesser things than this
will perturb this irascible organ: that the other should admire her
charms--that she should accept such admiration. . . .. yet what cares
she that these discomfort a man? For

A man's discomfiture is naught to a woman. In sooth,

Take a woman to task for her conduct, and with how soft an answer she
will turn away your wrath, how deftly make light of your rival's
advances!

* * *

Man, when he has won him a woman, is, in his great greed of possession,
infinitely chagrined that he was not master of her past as of her present