e, he never informed his wife of the trick he had played on her;
and if his fortune was recuperated, it was directly after the
building of the wing, and the expenditure of enormous sums in making
water-courses; but he assured her that the lake provided a water-power
by which mills might be run, etc.

Now, there was a conjugal blister well conceived, for this husband
neither neglected to rear his family nor to invite to his house
neighbors who were tiresome, stupid or old; and if he spent the winter
in Paris, he flung his wife into the vortex of balls and races, so that
she had not a minute to give to lovers, who are usually the fruit of a
vacant life.

Journeys to Italy, Switzerland or Greece, sudden complaints which
require a visit to the waters, and the most distant waters, are pretty
good blisters. In fact, a man of sense should know how to manufacture a
thousand of them.

Let us continue our examination of such personal methods.

And here we would have you observe that we are reasoning upon a
hypothesis, without which this book will be unintelligible to you;
namely, we suppose that your honeymoon has lasted for a respectable time
and that the lady that you married was not a widow, but a maid; on the
opposite supposition, it is at least in accordance with French manners
to think that your wife married you merely for the purpose of becoming
inconsistent.

From the moment when the struggle between virtue and inconsistency
begins in your home, the whole question rests upon the constant and
involuntary comparison which your wife is instituting between you and
her lover.

And here you may find still another mode of defence, entirely personal,
seldom employed by husbands, but the men of superiority will not fear
to attempt it. It is to belittle the lover without letting your wife
suspect your intention. You ought to be able to bring it about so that
she will say to herself some evening while she is putting her hair in
curl-papers, "My husband is superior to him."

In order to succeed, and you ought to be able to succeed, since you have
the immense advantage over the lover in knowing the character of your
wife, and how she is most easily wounded, you should, with all the tact
of a diplomat, lead this lover to do silly things and cause him to annoy
her, without his being aware of it.

In the first place, this lover, as usual, will seek your friendship,
or you will have friends in common; then, either through the
i