on or a trade, if he could procure by his own work
a sufficient income to render him independent of his wife; but if he
submit to be dependent on her, if he expect from her his daily bread, to
roll in her carriage, to ask her for the expenses of his toilet, for his
pocket-money, and perhaps for sundry questionable outlays--frankly, this
young man lacks pride; and what is a man who has no pride? Besides, what
surety is there that in marrying it is, indeed, the woman he is in love
with and not the dower? Who assures me that Count Abel Larinski?--I
name no one, personalities are odious, and I own there are exceptions.
_Dieu_, how rare they are! If I were Antoinette, I would love the poor,
but in their own interest. I would not marry them. The interest of the
whole human race is at stake. Beggars are inventive; let them have
their own way to make, and they will be sure to invent some means of
livelihood; give them the key of a cash-box, and they will cease to
strive, you have destroyed their genius. My dear professor, in fifteen
years I have brought about a great many marriages. Three times I have
married hunger to thirst, and, thank God, I once decided a millionaire
to marry a poor girl who had not a sou, but I never aided a beggar
to marry a rich girl. Now you have my principles and ideas--Are you
listening to me still? You fall asleep sometimes while listening to a
sermon. Good! you open your eyes--I proceed:

"I have seen your man. Well, sincerely, he only half pleases me. I
do not deny that he has a handsome head; a sculptor might use it as a
model. I will add that his eyes are very interesting, by turns grave,
gentle, gay, or melancholy. I have nothing to say against his manners or
his language; his address is excellent, and he is no booby--far from it.
With all this there is something about him that shocks me--I scarcely
know what--a mingling of two natures that I cannot explain. He might be
said to resemble, according to circumstances, a lion or a fox; I believe
that the fox-nature predominates, that the lion is supplementary. I
simply give you my impressions, which I am perfectly willing to be
induced to change. I am inclined to fancy that M. Larinski passed his
first youth amid vulgar surroundings, that later he came into contact
with good society, and being intelligent soon shook off the force of
early influences; but there still remain some traces of these. While he
was in my _salon_ his eyes twice took an invent