or six months it was superb. A year of constancy became
ridiculous and vulgar. Then the lady would fall in love, and the husband
conceived a friendship for the courtier, mousquetaire, or abbe, whom the
lady patronized. The husband did not fall in love; he only looked for
amusements. Sometimes chance afforded him what he needed, or he went to
the opera, where the nymphs of music and dancing took charge of his
superfluous funds. People talked of him for two days, and then he was
forgotten. Thus gently and pleasantly the husband and wife floated down
the stream of time; each keeping close to a bank, and shaking hands
whenever the currents brought them together. In the business of life
they were always as considerate as possible of each other, and shed some
honest tears when death separated them. Sometimes in old age, when both
were wearied by passion, and satiated with love, they recounted to each
other their wild adventures, as sailors tell their stories of shipwrecks
and the perils of their voyages. But," continued the Prince, "as there
are exceptions to all rules, the exceptions were the kindly-disposed and
well-regulated households, which were spoken of and laughed at.
Happiness, however, avenged them. Thus, beautiful lady, people lived in
other times. They do not live thus now--"

"All this I own," said Aminta, "interests me deeply."

"The devil!" said the Prince, aside, and under the impression that he
was in the presence of the irregular passion of his son, "Does not
morganaticism suffice?" Under this hypothesis, which made him smile with
pity, he resolved to cut the foolish hope short at the roots.

"In our days all is changed--women are saints and husbands are
angels--and the two are riveted together for all time. The wife is
constant, the husband faithful; or, if the contrary be the case, the
matter is hushed up and concealed. If public morality is satisfied, the
lovers are not the losers. It is also said that unhappy marriages now
are the exceptions. The chief difference is, though, that now men do
before marriage what they used to do afterwards. If one finds a pleasant
woman," said he, approaching Aminta, "like you, beautiful, intelligent,
and I venture to say also full of talent, as you are--we swear we love
her, and are really sincere. Reason, however, in the guise of matrimony,
hurries to sound the knell of love. At the first peal, it escapes, and
whither? The beauty we adore first weeps, and then finds co