e freedom of the city
in the marital establishment. Many husbands often suspect that their
wives have a lover, and yet they do not know upon which of the five or
six chosen ones of whom we have spoken their suspicions ought to fall.
This hesitation doubtless springs from some moral infirmity, to whose
assistance the professor must come.

Fouche had in Paris three or four houses resorted to by people of the
highest distinction; the mistresses of these dwellings were devoted to
him. This devotion cost a great deal of money to the state. The minister
used to call these gatherings, of which nobody at the time had any
suspicion, his _mouse-traps_. More than one arrest was made at the end
of the ball at which the most brilliant people of Paris had been made
accomplices of this oratorian.

The act of offering some fragments of roasted nuts, in order to see your
wife put her white hand in the trap, is certainly exceedingly delicate,
for a woman is certain to be on her guard; nevertheless, we reckon
upon at least three kinds of mouse-traps: _The Irresistible_, _The
Fallacious_, and that which is _Touch and Go_.

_The Irresistible._

Suppose two husbands, we will call them A and B, wish to discover who
are the lovers of their wives. We will put the husband A at the centre
of a table loaded with the finest pyramids of fruit, of crystals, of
candies and of liqueurs, and the husband B shall be at whatever point of
this brilliant circle you may please to suppose. The champagne has gone
round, every eye is sparkling and every tongue is wagging.

HUSBAND A. (peeling a chestnut)--Well, as for me, I admire literary
people, but from a distance. I find them intolerable; in conversation
they are despotic; I do not know what displeases me more, their faults
or their good qualities. In short (he swallows his chestnut), people of
genius are like tonics--you like, but you must use them temperately.

WIFE B. (who has listened attentively)--But, M. A., you are very
exacting (with an arch smile); it seems to me that dull people have as
many faults as people of talent, with this difference perhaps, that the
former have nothing to atone for them!

HUSBAND A. (irritably)--You will agree at least, madame, that they are
not very amiable to you.

WIFE B. (with vivacity)--Who told you so?

HUSBAND A. (smiling)--Don't they overwhelm you all the time with their
superiority? Vanity so dominates their souls that between y