e friends.

A very fertile source of so much unfaithfulness was the frequent
marriage of a ruined nobleman to a girl of fortune, but without rank.
Giving her his name was the only moral obligation; the marriage over
and the dowry portion settled, he pursued his way, considering that
he owed her no further duty. Very frequently, the husband, overcome by
jealousy or humiliated by the low standard of his wife who injured or
brought ridicule upon his name, would have her kidnapped and taken
to a convent. This right was enjoyed by the husband in spite of the
general liberty of woman. A letters-patent was obtained through proof
of adultery, and the wife was imprisoned in some convent for the rest
of her life, being deprived of her dowry which fell to her husband.

At one time, the great ambition of woman was to procure a legal
separation--an ambition which seems to have developed into a fad,
for at one period there were over three hundred applicants for legal
separation, a state of affairs which so frightened Parliament that
it passed rigid laws. A striking contrast to this was the custom
connected with mourning. At the death of the husband, the wife wore
mourning, her entire establishment, with every article of interior
furnishing, was draped in the sombre hue; she no longer went out and
her house was open only to relatives and those who came to pay visits
of condolence. Unless she married again, she remained in mourning all
her life; but it should not be understood that the veil concealed her
coquetry or prevented her from enjoying her liberty and planning her
future. Then, as to-day, there were many examples of fanaticism and
folly; one widow would endeavor to commit suicide; another lived with
the figure of her husband in wax; another conversed, for several
hours of the day, with the shade of her husband; others consecrated
themselves to the church.

This all-supreme sway of love and its attributes, left its impression
and lasting effect upon the physiognomy of the mistress; in the early
part of the century, the mistress was chosen from the respectable
aristocracy and the nobility; gradually, however, the limits of
selection were extended until they included the _bourgeoisie_ and,
finally, the offspring of the common _femme du peuple_. A woman
from any profession, from any stratum of society, by her charm and
intelligence, her original discoveries and inventions of debauch
and licentiousness, could easily become the he