s to be
abandoned, in order to make successful use of her. Many a woman, in this
connection, has been the victim of her own calculations.

Moreover, the more impetuous and passionate a husband shows himself, the
less will a woman dare to employ this expedient; but a husband caught
in this snare will never have anything to say to his stern better-half,
when the maid, giving evidence of the fault she has committed, is sent
into the country with an infant and a dowry.

6. OF THE DOCTOR.

The doctor is one of the most potent auxiliaries of an honest woman,
when she wishes to acquire a friendly divorce from her husband. The
services that the doctor renders, most of the time without knowing it,
to a woman, are of such importance that there does not exist a single
house in France where the doctor is chosen by any one but the wife.

All doctors know what great influence women have on their reputation;
thus we meet with few doctors who do not study to please the ladies.
When a man of talent has become celebrated it is true that he does not
lend himself to the crafty conspiracies which women hatch; but without
knowing it he becomes involved in them.

I suppose that a husband taught by the adventures of his own youth makes
up his mind to pick out a doctor for his wife, from the first days of
his marriage. So long as his feminine adversary fails to conceive
the assistance that she may derive from this ally, she will submit in
silence; but later on, if all her allurements fail to win over the man
chosen by her husband, she will take a more favorable opportunity to
give her husband her confidence, in the following remarkable manner.

"I don't like the way in which the doctor feels my pulse!"

And of course the doctor is dropped.

Thus it happens that either a woman chooses her doctor, wins over the
man who has been imposed upon her, or procures his dismissal. But this
contest is very rare; the majority of young men who marry are acquainted
with none but beardless doctors whom they have no anxiety to procure for
their wives, and almost always the Esculapius of the household is
chosen by the feminine power. Thus it happens that some fine morning the
doctor, when he leaves the chamber of madame, who has been in bed for a
fortnight, is induced by her to say to you:

"I do not say that the condition of madame presents any serious
symptoms; but this constant drowsiness, this general listlessness, and
her natural tendency to