took it into his head to put egg-shells in his bed,
and who obtained no other sympathy from his confederate than the
words, "You are not very successful in breaking them."
The Marshal de Saxe did not give much consolation to his Popeliniere
when they discovered in company that famous revolving chimney,
invented by the Duc de Richelieu.
"That is the finest piece of horn work that I have ever seen!" cried
the victor of Fontenoy.
Let us hope that your espionage will not give you so troublesome a
lesson. Such misfortunes are the fruits of the civil war and we do not
live in that age.
4. THE INDEX.
The Pope puts books only on the Index; you will mark with a stigma of
reprobation men and things.
It is forbidden to madame to go into a bath except in her own house.
It is forbidden to madame to receive into her house him whom you
suspect of being her lover, and all those who are the accomplices of
their love.
It is forbidden to madame to take a walk without you.
But the peculiarities which in each household originate from the
diversity of characters, the numberless incidents of passion, and the
habits of the married people give to this black book so many
variations, the lines in it are multiplied or erased with such
rapidity that a friend of the author has called this Index _The
History of Changes in the Marital Church_.
There are only two things which can be controlled or prescribed in
accordance with definite rules; the first is the country, the second
is the promenade.
A husband ought never to take his wife to the country nor permit her
to go there. Have a country home if you like, live there, entertain
there nobody excepting ladies or old men, but never leave your wife
alone there. But to take her, for even half a day, to the house of
another man is to show yourself as stupid as an ostrich.
To keep guard over a wife in the country is a task most difficult of
accomplishment. Do you think that you will be able to be in the
thickets, to climb the trees, to follow the tracks of a lover over the
grass trodden down at night, but straightened by the dew in the
morning and refreshed by the rays of the sun? Can you keep your eye on
every opening in the fence of the park? Oh! the country and the
Spring! These are the two right arms of the celibate.
When a woman reaches the crisis at which we suppose her to be, a
husband ought to remain in town till the declaration of war, or
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