he is positively good for nothing, but she is more useful
to me than any other member of my household. If she remains with me ten
years, I have promised her twenty thousand francs. It will be money
well earned, and I shall not forget to give it!" said the young woman,
nodding her head with a meaning gesture.

At last the questioner of Madame V----y understood.

When a woman has no friend of her own sex intimate enough to assist
her in proving false to marital love, her maid is a last resource which
seldom fails in bringing about the desired result.

Oh! after ten years of marriage to find under his roof, and to see all
the time, a young girl of from sixteen to eighteen, fresh, dressed with
taste, the treasures of whose beauty seem to breathe defiance, whose
frank bearing is irresistibly attractive, whose downcast eyes seem to
fear you, whose timid glance tempts you, and for whom the conjugal bed
has no secrets, for she is at once a virgin and an experienced woman!
How can a man remain cold, like St. Anthony, before such powerful
sorcery, and have the courage to remain faithful to the good principles
represented by a scornful wife, whose face is always stern, whose
manners are always snappish, and who frequently refuses to be caressed?
What husband is stoical enough to resist such fires, such frosts? There,
where you see a new harvest of pleasure, the young innocent sees an
income, and your wife her liberty. It is a little family compact, which
is signed in the interest of good will.

In this case, your wife acts with regard to marriage as young
fashionables do with regard to their country. If they are drawn for the
army, they buy a man to carry the musket, to die in their place and to
spare them the hardships of military life.

In compromises of this sort there is not a single woman who does not
know how to put her husband in the wrong. I have noticed that, by a
supreme stroke of diplomacy, the majority of wives do not admit their
maids into the secret of the part which they give them to play. They
trust to nature, and assume an affected superiority over the lover and
his mistress.

These secret perfidies of women explain to a great degree the odd
features of married life which are to be observed in the world; and I
have heard women discuss, with profound sagacity, the dangers which are
inherent in this terrible method of attack, and it is necessary to
know thoroughly both the husband and the creature to whom he i