subject; it is the one thing on which they all agree irrespective of
creed or class, so these remarks barely concern them; but should male
eyes fall on this page, and if in the pride of his heart he should cry
out, 'This is not so,' I would have him make application to his wife or
sister, and if he possess neither he may discover the truth in his own
mind. Let him ask himself if it could be otherwise, since our usage and
wont is that a woman shall prepare for the reception of visitors by
adorning her rooms with flowers and dressing herself in fine linen and
silk attire, and be to all men alike as they come and go. She must cover
all with winning glances, and beguile all with seductive eyes and foot,
and talk about love, though, perhaps she would prefer to think of one
who is far away. Men do not live under such restraint. A man may reserve
all his thoughts for his mistress, but the moment he leaves, his
mistress must begin to cajole the new-comer, however indifferent he may
be to her. The habit of her life is to cajole, to please, to inspire, if
possible, and if she be not a born coquette she becomes one, and takes
pleasure in her art, devoting her body and mind to it, reading only
books about love and lovers, singing songs of love, and seeking always
new scents and colours and modes of fascination. If lovers are away and
none calls, she abandons herself to dreams, and her imagination
furnishes quickly a new romance. Somebody she has half-forgotten rises
up in her memory, and she thinks that she could like him if he were to
come into her drawing-room now. It would be happiness indeed to walk
forward into his arms and to call her soul into her eyes; or, if a
letter were to come from him asking her to dinner, she would accept it;
and, lying back among her silken cushions, she thinks she could spend
many hours in his company without weariness. She creates his rooms and
his person and his conversation, and when he is exhausted a new intrigue
rises up in her mind, and then another and another. Some drop away and
remain for ever unfulfilled, while others 'come into their own,' as the