is
your mother. Ninety-nine out of a hundred husbands will leave the house
satisfied, believing that their wives are well guarded, when, as a
matter of fact, the wives have gotten rid of them.

A lawful wife who from her husband cannot escape, who is not distressed
by pecuniary anxiety, and who in order to give employment to a vacant
mind, examines night and day the changing tableaux of each day's
experience, soon discovers the mistake she has made in falling into a
trap or allowing herself to be surprised by a catastrophe; she will then
endeavor to turn all these weapons against you.

There is a man in society, the sight of whom is strangely annoying to
your wife; she can tolerate neither his tone, his manners nor his way of
regarding things. Everything connected with him is revolting to her; she
is persecuted by him, he is odious to her; she hopes that no one will
tell him this. It seems almost as if she were attempting to oppose you;
for this man is one for whom you have the highest esteem. You like his
disposition because he flatters you; and thus your wife presumes that
your esteem for him results from flattered vanity. When you give a ball,
an evening party or a concert, there is almost a discussion on this
subject, and madame picks a quarrel with you, because you are compelling
her to see people who are not agreeable to her.

"At least, sir, I shall never have to reproach myself with omitting
to warn you. That man will yet cause you trouble. You should put some
confidence in women when they pass sentence on the character of a man.
And permit me to tell you that this baron, for whom you have such a
predilection, is a very dangerous person, and you are doing very
wrong to bring him to your house. And this is the way you behave; you
absolutely force me to see one whom I cannot tolerate, and if I ask you
to invite Monsieur A-----, you refuse to do so, because you think that
I like to have him with me! I admit that he talks well, that he is kind
and amiable; but you are more to me than he can ever be."

These rude outlines of feminine tactics, which are emphasized by
insincere gestures, by looks of feigned ingenuousness, by artful
intonations of the voice and even by the snare of cunning silence, are
characteristic to some degree of their whole conduct.

There are few husbands who in such circumstances as these do not form
the idea of setting a mouse-trap; they welcome as their guests both
Monsieur A----- and th