ONE WILL FIND HIS OWN IMPRESSIONS OF MARRIAGE.

A friend, in speaking to you of a young woman, says: "Good family,
well bred, pretty, and three hundred thousand in her own right."
You have expressed a desire to meet this charming creature.

Usually, chance interviews are premeditated. And you speak with
this object, who has now become very timid.

YOU.--"A delightful evening!"

SHE.--"Oh! yes, sir."

You are allowed to become the suitor of this young person.

THE MOTHER-IN-LAW (to the intended groom).--"You can't imagine how
susceptible the dear girl is of attachment."

Meanwhile there is a delicate pecuniary question to be discussed
by the two families.

YOUR FATHER (to the mother-in-law).--"My property is valued at
five hundred thousand francs, my dear madame!"

YOUR FUTURE MOTHER-IN-LAW.--"And our house, my dear sir, is on a
corner lot."

A contract follows, drawn up by two hideous notaries, a small one,
and a big one.

Then the two families judge it necessary to convoy you to the
civil magistrate's and to the church, before conducting the bride
to her chamber.

Then what? . . . . . Why, then come a crowd of petty unforeseen
troubles, like the following:

PETTY TROUBLES OF MARRIED LIFE

THE UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL.

Is it a petty or a profound trouble? I knew not; it is profound for
your sons-in-law or daughters-in-law, but exceedingly petty for you.

"Petty! You must be joking; why, a child costs terribly dear!"
exclaims a ten-times-too-happy husband, at the baptism of his
eleventh, called the little last newcomer,--a phrase with which women
beguile their families.

"What trouble is this?" you ask me. Well! this is, like many petty
troubles of married life, a blessing for some one.

You have, four months since, married off your daughter, whom we will
call by the sweet name of CAROLINE, and whom we will make the type of
all wives. Caroline is, like all other young ladies, very charming,
and you have found for her a husband who is either a lawyer, a
captain, an engineer, a judge, or perhaps a young viscount. But he is
more likely to be what sensible families must seek,--the ideal of
their desires--the only son of a rich landed proprietor. (See the
_Preface_.)

This phoenix we will call ADOLPHE, whatever may be his position in the
world, his age, and the color of his hair.

The lawyer, the captain