ouge and spermaceti and
cold cream. I am straightforward; but duplicity is more pleasing. I
am loyally passionate, as an honest woman may be, but I ought to be
manoeuvring, tricky, hypocritical, and simulate a coldness I have
not,--like any provincial actress. I am intoxicated with the happiness
of having married one of the most charming men in France; I tell him,
naively, how distinguished he is, how graceful his movements are, how
handsome I think him; but to please him I ought to turn away my head
with pretended horror, to love nothing with real love, and tell him
his distinction is mere sickliness. I have the misfortune to admire
all beautiful things without setting myself up for a wit by caustic and
envious criticism of whatever shines from poesy and beauty. I don't
seek to make Canalis and Nathan say of _me_ in verse and prose that my
intellect is superior. I'm only a poor little artless child; I care only
for Calyste. Ah! if I had scoured the world like _her_, if I had said
as _she_ has said, 'I love,' in every language of Europe, I should be
consoled, I should be pitied, I should be adored for serving the regal
Macedonian with cosmopolitan love! We are thanked for our tenderness if
we set it in relief against our vice. And I, a noble woman, must teach
myself impurity and all the tricks of prostitutes! And Calyste is the
dupe of such grimaces! Oh, mother! oh, my dear Clotilde! I feel that I
have got my death-blow. My pride is only a sham buckler; I am without
defence against my misery; I love my husband madly, and yet to bring him
back to me I must borrow the wisdom of indifference."

"Silly girl," whispered Clotilde, "let him think you will avenge
yourself--"

"I wish to die irreproachable and without the mere semblance of doing
wrong," replied Sabine. "A woman's vengeance should be worthy of her
love."

"My child," said the duchess to her daughter, "a mother must of course
see life more coolly than you can see it. Love is not the end, but
the means, of the Family. Do not imitate that poor Baronne de Macumer.
Excessive passion is unfruitful and deadly. And remember, God sends us
afflictions with knowledge of our needs. Now that Athenais' marriage
is arranged, I can give all my thoughts to you. In fact, I have already
talked of this delicate crisis in your life with your father and the
Duc de Chaulieu, and also with d'Ajuda; we shall certainly find means to
bring Calyste back to you."

"There is always one r