iously--his plays succeeded. For these reasons he would not have
separated from Tullia for an empire. If she had been unfaithful, he
would probably have passed it over, on condition that none of his
accustomed joys should be retrenched; yet, strange to say, Tullia caused
him no twinges on this account. No fancy was laid to her charge; if
there had been any, she certainly had been very careful of appearances.

"'My dear fellow,' du Bruel would say, laying down the law to us on the
boulevard, 'there is nothing like one of these women who have sown their
wild oats and got over their passions. Such women as Claudine have lived
their bachelor life; they have been over head and ears in pleasure, and
make the most adorable wives that could be wished; they have nothing to
learn, they are formed, they are not in the least prudish; they are well
broken in, and indulgent. So I strongly recommend everybody to take the
"remains of a racer." I am the most fortunate man on earth.'

"Du Bruel said this to me himself with Bixiou there to hear it.

"'My dear fellow,' said the caricaturist, 'perhaps he is right to be in
the wrong.'

"About a week afterwards, du Bruel asked us to dine with him one
Tuesday. That morning I went to see him on a piece of theatrical
business, a case submitted to us for arbitration by the commission of
dramatic authors. We were obliged to go out again; but before we started
he went to Claudine's room, knocked, as he always does, and asked for
leave to enter.

"'We live in grand style,' said he, smiling; 'we are free. Each is
independent.'

"We were admitted. Du Bruel spoke to Claudine. 'I have asked a few
people to dinner to-day--"

"'Just like you!' cried she. 'You ask people without speaking to me; I
count for nothing here.--Now' (taking me as arbitrator by a glance) 'I
ask you yourself. When a man has been so foolish as to live with a woman
of my sort; for, after all, I was an opera dancer--yes, I ought always
to remember that, if other people are to forget it--well, under those
circumstances, a clever man seeking to raise his wife in public opinion
would do his best to impose her upon the world as a remarkable woman, to
justify the step he had taken by acknowledging that in some ways she was
something more than ordinary women. The best way of compelling respect
from others is to pay respect to her at home, and to leave her absolute
mistress of the house. Well, and yet it is enough to awaken one's vani