into the most splendid venture. I am going to have
a carriage, oh! ever so much handsomer than Madame de Fischtaminel's;
hers is out of fashion. Mine will have curtains with fringes. My horses
will be mouse-colored, hers are bay,--they are as common as coppers."

"What is this venture, madame?"

"Oh, it's splendid--the stock is going up; he explained it to me before
he went into it, for Adolphe never does anything without consulting me."

"You are very fortunate."

"Marriage would be intolerable without entire confidence, and Adolphe
tells me everything."

Thus, Adolphe, you are the best husband in Paris, you are adorable, you
are a man of genius, you are all heart, an angel. You are petted to an
uncomfortable degree. You bless the marriage tie. Caroline extols men,
calling them "kings of creation," women were made for them, man is
naturally generous, and matrimony is a delightful institution.

For three, sometimes six, months, Caroline executes the most brilliant
concertos and solos upon this delicious theme: "I shall be rich! I shall
have a thousand a month for my dress: I am going to keep my carriage!"

If your son is alluded to, it is merely to ask about the school to which
he shall be sent.

SECOND PERIOD.--"Well, dear, how is your business getting on?--What
has become of it?--How about that speculation which was to give me a
carriage, and other things?--It is high time that affair should come to
something.--It is a good while cooking.--When _will_ it begin to pay? Is
the stock going up?--There's nobody like you for hitting upon ventures
that never amount to anything."

One day she says to you, "Is there really an affair?"

If you mention it eight or ten months after, she returns:

"Ah! Then there really _is_ an affair!"

This woman, whom you thought dull, begins to show signs of extraordinary
wit, when her object is to make fun of you. During this period, Caroline
maintains a compromising silence when people speak of you, or else she
speaks disparagingly of men in general: "Men are not what they seem:
to find them out you must try them." "Marriage has its good and its bad
points." "Men never can finish anything."

THIRD PERIOD.--_Catastrophe_.--This magnificent affair which was to
yield five hundred per cent, in which the most cautious, the best
informed persons took part--peers, deputies, bankers--all of them
Knights of the Legion of Honor--this venture has been obliged to
liquidate! The most s