said; 'you snatch away all my illusions; you deprave my heart.'

"She said to me all that I had a right to say to her, and with a
simple effrontery, an artless audacity, which would certainly have
nailed any man but me on the spot.--'What is to become of us poor
women in a state of society such as Louis XVIII.'s charter made it?'
--(Imagine how her words had run away with her.)--'Yes, indeed, we are
born to suffer. In matters of passion we are always superior to you,
and you are beneath all loyalty. There is no honesty in your hearts.
To you love is a game in which you always cheat.'--'My dear,' said I,
'to take anything serious in society nowadays would be like making
romantic love to an actress.'--'What a shameless betrayal! It was
deliberately planned!'--'No, only a rational issue.'--'Good-bye,
Monsieur de Marsay,' said she; 'you have deceived me horribly.'
--'Surely,' I replied, taking up a submissive attitude, 'Madame la
Duchesse will not remember Charlotte's grievances?'--'Certainly,' she
answered bitterly.--'Then, in fact, you hate me?'--She bowed, and I
said to myself, 'There is something still left!'

"The feeling she had when I parted from her allowed her to believe
that she still had something to avenge. Well, my friends, I have
carefully studied the lives of men who have had great success with
women, but I do not believe that the Marechal de Richelieu, or Lauzun,
or Louis de Valois ever effected a more judicious retreat at the first
attempt. As to my mind and heart, they were cast in a mould then and
there, once for all, and the power of control I thus acquired over the
thoughtless impulses which make us commit so many follies gained me
the admirable presence of mind you all know."

"How deeply I pity the second!" exclaimed the Baronne de Nucingen.