frequented her house, she
felt safe from her persecutors; and her main ambition was to commit me
to an open and deliberate partiality. She did not, however, know the
true characters of her comrades, nor yet my fundamental principles and
temperament; nor, what was worse, did she know herself.

Had I declared that open partiality which she desired, it is certain
that I should have exposed her to still more trying enmities and
persecutions. The managers of the troupe, governed exclusively by
calculations of interest, would have felt themselves compelled to curry
favour with me by indulging her in all her whims, demands, breaches of
discipline, and a thousand feminine caprices. Nothing could be more
alien to my real character than to make myself the proud and domineering
protector of one actress to the injury of her companions. Besides, her
views and mine were so fundamentally at variance upon some elementary
points of conduct, that I doubted whether a liaison between us could
ever be of long duration. Light-headed, vain, and sensitive to flattery,
she had no regard for prudence and propriety; nor did she recognise
those faults in herself which were always involving her in difficulties.
I knew, moreover, that characters like hers must sooner or later incline
to those who caress their foibles and pervert their judgment, while they
come to regard their real friends and honest counsellors as tiresome
pedants. She had no grounds for believing that I was in love with her.
Yet, such was her self-assurance, that she interpreted my kind offices
on her behalf into signs of submission to her charms. Finally, though I
was far from believing all she said about her affection for my person, I
determined to extend to her a cordial friendship.

There are two classes of sinners, whom the world, however dissolute,
will always hold in abhorrence--the shameless cynic and the hypocrite.
Libertines invariably attempt to confound prudent and respectful friends
of women with the odious tribe of hypocrites.[43] I delighted in the
theatre. I was known, appreciated, and courted by actors and actresses
of all sorts, composers, singers, ballet-dancers. They came to me for
advice and support on all occasions. I had to write pieces for them,
prologues, epilogues, and what not. I was consulted about the
arrangement of pantomimic scenes, dances, words for music. If the
innumerable actresses with whom I conversed were to give their
testimony, it would app