served by a husband in like case.

M. de Roquemont slept once a month in the chamber of his wife, and he
used to say, as he went away:

"I wash my hands of anything that may happen."

There is something disgusting in that remark, and perhaps something
profound in its suggestion of conjugal policy.

A diplomat, when he saw his wife's lover enter, left his study and,
going to his wife's chamber, said to the two:

"I hope you will at least refrain from fighting."

This was good humor.

M. de Boufflers was asked what he would do if on returning after a long
absence he found his wife with child?

"I would order my night dress and slippers to be taken to her room."

This was magnanimity.

"Madame, if this man ill treats you when you are alone, it is your
own fault; but I will not permit him to behave ill towards you in my
presence, for this is to fail in politeness in me."

This was nobility.

The sublime is reached in this connection when the square cap of the
judge is placed by the magistrate at the foot of the bed wherein the two
culprits are asleep.

There are some fine ways of taking vengeance. Mirabeau has admirably
described in one of the books he wrote to make a living the mournful
resignation of that Italian lady who was condemned by her husband to
perish with him in the Maremma.

LAST AXIOMS.

XCIII.
It is no act of vengeance to surprise a wife and her lover and to kill
them locked in each other's arms; it is a great favor to them both.

XCIV.
A husband will be best avenged by his wife's lover.

MEDITATION XXVIII. OF COMPENSATIONS.

The marital catastrophe which a certain number of husbands cannot avoid,
almost always forms the closing scene of the drama. At that point all
around you is tranquil. Your resignation, if you are resigned, has the
power of awakening keen remorse in the soul of your wife and of her
lover; for their happiness teaches them the depth of the wound they have
inflicted upon you. You are, you may be sure, a third element in all
their pleasures. The principle of kindliness and goodness which lies at
the foundation of the human soul, is not so easily repressed as
people think; moreover the two people who are causing you tortures are
precisely those for whom you wish the most good.

In the conversations so sweetly familiar which link together the
pleasures of love, and form in some way