substituting a lasting sentiment
for the mere passing frenzy of nature, it has succeeded in creating
that greatest of all human inventions--the family, which is the enduring
basis of all organized society. To the accomplishment of this end, it
has sacrificed the individual, man as well as woman; for we must not
shut our eyes to the fact that a married man devotes his energy, his
power, and all his possession to his wife. Is it not she who reaps the
benefit of all his care? For whom, if not for her, are the luxury and
wealth, the position and distinction, the comfort and the gaiety of the
home?

Oh! my sweet, once again you have taken the wrong turning in life. To be
adored is a young girl's dream, which may survive a few springtimes; it
cannot be that of the mature woman, the wife and mother. To a woman's
vanity it is, perhaps, enough to know that she can command adoration if
she likes. If you would live the life of a wife and mother, return, I
beg of you, to Paris. Let me repeat my warning: It is not misfortune
which you have to dread, as others do--it is happiness.

Listen to me, my child! It is the simple things of life--bread, air,
silence--of which we do not tire; they have no piquancy which can create
distaste; it is highly-flavored dishes which irritate the palate, and in
the end exhaust it. Were it possible that I should to-day be loved by
a man for whom I could conceive a passion, such as yours for Gaston, I
would still cling to the duties and the children, who are so dear to
me. To a woman's heart the feelings of a mother are among the simple,
natural, fruitful, and inexhaustible things of life. I can recall
the day, now nearly fourteen years ago, when I embarked on a life of
self-sacrifice with the despair of a shipwrecked mariner clinging to the
mast of his vessel; now, as I invoke the memory of past years, I feel
that I would make the same choice again. No other guiding principle
is so safe, or leads to such rich reward. The spectacle of your life,
which, for all the romance and poetry with which you invest it, still
remains based on nothing but a ruthless selfishness, has helped to
strengthen my convictions. This is the last time I shall speak to you in
this way; but I could not refrain from once more pleading with you when
I found that your happiness had been proof against the most searching of
all trials.

And one more point I must urge on you, suggested by my meditations on
your retirement. Life, wh