u are in error, gentlemen, you are imposing upon your vanity, it is
in vain you try to put us on a false scent, that, of itself, is
offensive, and you talk of sentiment as ennobling a thing that
resembles it very little. Are not you, yourselves, to blame if we
treat you thus? However little intelligence a woman may have, she
knows that the strongest tie to bind you to her is anticipation,
wherefore, you must let her lay the blame on you. If she were to arm
herself from the first with a severity that would indicate that she is
invincible, from that time, no lovers for her. What a solitude would
be hers, what shame even? For a woman of the most pronounced virtue is
no less sensible of the desire to please, she makes her glory consist
in securing homage and adoration. But without ignoring the fact that
those she expects attention from are induced to bestow them only for
reasons that wound her pride; unable to reform this defect, the only
part she can take is to use it to her advantage to keep them by her
side; she knows how to keep them, and not destroy the very hopes
which, however, she is determined never to gratify. With care and
skill she succeeds. Hence, as soon as a woman understands her real
interests she does not fail to say to herself what the Countess
confessed to me at our last interview:

"I can well appreciate the 'I love you' of the men; I do not disguise
the fact that I know what it signifies at bottom, therefore upon me
rests the burden of being offended at hearing them; but when women
have penetrated their motives, they have need of their vanity to
disconcert their designs. Our anger, when they have offended us, is
not the best weapon to use in opposing them. Whoever must go outside
herself and become angry to resist them, exposes her weakness. A fine
irony, a piquant raillery, a humiliating coolness, these are what
discourage them. Never a quarrel with them, consequently no
reconciliation. What advantages does not this mode of procedure take
from them!

"The prude, it is true, follows a quite different method. If she is
exposed to the least danger, she does not imagine herself to be
reasonable but in proportion to the resentment she experiences; but
upon whom does such conduct impose? Every man who knows the cards,
says to himself: 'I am ill used because the opportunity is
unfavorable. It is my awkwardness that is punished and not my
temerity. Another time, that will be well received which is a crime
t