e everything to satiate your passion for the
beloved object? I have always contended that love never dies from
desire but often from indigestion, and I will sometime tell you in
confidence my feelings for Count ----. You will understand from that
how to manage a passion to render happiness enduring; you will see
whether I know the human heart and true felicity; you will learn from
my example that the economy of the sentiments is, in the question of
love, the only reasonable metaphysics. In fine, you will know how
little you understand your true interests in your conduct toward the
Countess. To interfere with your projects, I shall be with her as
often as it is possible. Now, do not be formal, and tell me that I am
an advocate on both sides; for I am persuaded that I am acting for the
good of the parties interested.

XLII

Surface Indications in Women are Not Always Guides

What, I censure you, Marquis? I will take good care not to do so, I
assure you. You have not been willing to follow my advice, and hence,
I am not at all sorry for having ill-used you. You thought you had
nothing to do but to treat the Countess roughly. Her easy fashion of
treating love, her accessibility, her indulgence for your numerous
faults, the freedom with which she mocks the Platonicians, all this
encouraged you to hope that she was not very severe, but you have just
discovered your mistake. All this outward show was nothing but
deceitful and perfidious allurements. To take advantage thus of the
good faith of any one--I must confess that it is a conduct which cries
for vengeance; she deserves all the names you give her.

But do you wish me to talk to you with my customary frankness? You
have fallen into an error which is common among men. They judge women
from the surface. They imagine that a woman whose virtue is not always
on the qui vive, will be easier to overcome than a prude; even
experience does not undeceive them. How often are they exposed to a
severity all the keener that it was unexpected? Their custom then, is
to accuse women of caprice and oddity; all of you use the same
language, and say: Why such equivocal conduct? When a woman has
decided to remain intractable, why surprise the credulity of a lover?
Why not possess an exterior conformable to her sentiments? In a word,
why permit a man to love her, when she does not care ever to see him
again? Is this not being odd and false? Is it not trifling with
sentiment?

Yo