e
chambre_, 'all that he requires for his toilet.' In those days people
dressed for the night. These extraordinary words did not rouse the
husband from his mood of abstraction, and then madame, assisted by her
maid, began to indulge in a thousand coquetries. 'Was my appearance to
your taste this evening?' 'You are always to my taste,' answered the
marquis, continuing to stride up and down the room. 'You are very
gloomy! Come and talk to me, you frowning lover,' said she, placing
herself before him in the most seductive negligee. But you can have no
idea of the enchantments of the marchioness unless you had known her.
Ah! you have seen her, Noce!" he said with a mocking smile. "Finally, in
spite of all her allurements and beauty, the marchioness was lost sight
of amid thoughts of the six thousand crowns which this fool of a husband
could not get out of his head, and she went to bed all alone. But women
always have one resource left; so that the moment that the good husband
made as though he would get into his bed, the marchioness cried, 'Oh,
how cold I am!' 'So am I,' he replied. 'How is it that the servants have
not warmed our beds?'--And then I rang."

The Comte de Noce could not help laughing, and the old marquis, quite
put out of countenance, stopped short.

Not to divine the desire of a wife, to snore while she lies awake, to
be in Siberia when she is in the tropics, these are the slighter
disadvantages of twin beds. What risks will not a passionate woman run
when she becomes aware that her husband is a heavy sleeper?

I am indebted to Beyle for an Italian anecdote, to which his dry and
sarcastic manner lent an infinite charm, as he told me this tale of
feminine hardihood.

Ludovico had his palace at one end of the town of Milan; at the
other was that of the Countess of Pernetti. At midnight, on a certain
occasion, Ludovico resolved, at the peril of his life, to make a rash
expedition for the sake of gazing for one second on the face he
adored, and accordingly appeared as if by magic in the palace of his
well-beloved. He reached the nuptial chamber. Elisa Pernetti, whose
heart most probably shared the desire of her lover, heard the sound of
his footsteps and divined his intention. She saw through the walls of
her chamber a countenance glowing with love. She rose from her marriage
bed, light as a shadow she glided to the threshold of her door, with a
look she embraced him, she seized his hand, she made a sign to