is so dangerous as a chair, and it is extremely
unfortunate that women cannot be shut up within the four walls of a bare
room! What husband is there, who on sitting down on a rickety chair is
not always forced to believe that this chair has received some of the
lessons taught by the _Sofa_ of Crebillion junior? But happily we have
arranged your apartment on such a system of prevention that nothing
so fatal can happen, or, at any rate, not without your contributory
negligence.

One fault which you must contract, and which you must never correct,
will consist in a sort of heedless curiosity, which will make you
examine unceasingly all the boxes, and turn upside down the contents
of all dressing-cases and work-baskets. You must proceed to this
domiciliary visit in a humorous mood, and gracefully, so that each time
you will obtain pardon by exciting the amusement of your wife.

You must always manifest a most profound astonishment on noticing any
piece of furniture freshly upholstered in her well-appointed apartment.
You must immediately make her explain to you the advantages of the
change; and then you must ransack your mind to discover whether there be
not some underhand motive in the transaction.

This is by no means all. You have too much sense to forget that your
pretty parrot will remain in her cage only so long as that cage is
beautiful. The least accessory of her apartment ought, therefore, to
breathe elegance and taste. The general appearance should always present
a simple, at the same time a charming picture. You must constantly renew
the hangings and muslin curtains. The freshness of the decorations
is too essential to permit of economy on this point. It is the fresh
chickweed each morning carefully put into the cage of their birds, that
makes their pets believe it is the verdure of the meadows. An apartment
of this character is then the _ultima ratio_ of husbands; a wife has
nothing to say when everything is lavished on her.

Husbands who are condemned to live in rented apartments find themselves
in the most terrible situation possible. What happy or what fatal
influence cannot the porter exercise upon their lot?

Is not their home flanked on either side by other houses? It is true
that by placing the apartment of their wives on one side of the house
the danger is lessened by one-half; but are they not obliged to learn by
heart and to ponder the age, the condition, the fortune, the character,
the habits of