s driving away at two
in the morning; "it was only the caprice or the curiosity of a Parisian
woman that made her want to see me."

After that the captain went back to his ordinary habits and ways, which
had been somewhat upset by this incident. Diverted by her Parisian
occupations, Clementine appeared to have forgotten Paz. It must not be
thought an easy matter to reign a queen over fickle Paris. Does any one
suppose that fortunes alone are risked in the great game? The winters
are to fashionable women what a campaign once was to the soldiers of the
Empire. What works of art and genius are expended on a gown or a garland
in which to make a sensation! A fragile, delicate creature will wear
her stiff and brilliant harness of flowers and diamonds, silk and steel,
from nine at night till two and often three o'clock in the morning. She
eats little, to attract remark to her slender waist; she satisfied her
hunger with debilitating tea, sugared cakes, ices which heat her, or
slices of heavy pastry. The stomach is made to yield to the orders of
coquetry. The awakening comes too late. A fashionable woman's whole life
is in contradiction to the laws of nature, and nature is pitiless. She
has no sooner risen than she makes an elaborate morning toilet, and
thinks of the one which she means to wear in the afternoon. The moment
she is dressed she has to receive and make visits, and go to the Bois
either on horseback or in a carriage. She must practise the art of
smiling, and must keep her mind on the stretch to invent new compliments
which shall seem neither common nor far-fetched. All women do not
succeed in this. It is no surprise, therefore, to find a young woman who
entered fashionable society fresh and healthy, faded and worn out at the
end of three years. Six months spent in the country will hardly heal the
wounds of the winter. We hear continually, in these days, of mysterious
ailments,--gastritis, and so forth,--ills unknown to women when they
busied themselves about their households. In the olden time women only
appeared in the world at intervals; now they are always on the scene.
Clementine found she had to struggle for her supremacy. She was cited,
and that alone brought jealousies; and the care and watchfulness exacted
by this contest with her rivals left little time even to love her
husband. Paz might well be forgotten. Nevertheless, in the month of
May, as she drove home from the Bois, just before she left Paris for
Ro