feelings by refusing. I owe it to my honour to remark here that I was
thus polite without thinking that I should see Barberine again.

This girl, as pretty as her sister, though in another style, began by
awakening my curiosity--a weakness which usually renders the profligate
man inconstant. If all women were to have the same features, the same
disposition, and the same manners, men would not only never be
inconstant, but would never be in love. Under that state of things one
would choose a wife by instinct and keep to her till death, but our world
would then be under a different system to the present. Novelty is the
master of the soul. We know that what we do not see is very nearly the
same as what we have seen, but we are curious, we like to be quite sure,
and to attain our ends we give ourselves as much trouble as if we were
certain of finding some prize beyond compare.

Barberine, who looked upon me as an old friend--for her mother had
accustomed her to kiss my hand whenever I went there, who had undressed
more than once in my presence without troubling about me, who knew I had
made her sister's fortune and the family fortune as well, and thought
herself prettier than Tonine because her skin was fairer, and because she
had fine black eyes, desiring to take her sister's place, knew that to
succeed she must take me by storm. Her common sense told her that as I
hardly ever came to the house, I should not be likely to become amorous
of her unless she won me by storm; and to this end she shewed the utmost
complaisance when she had the chance, so that I won her without any
difficulty. All this reasoning came from her own head, for I am sure her
mother gave her no instructions. Laura was a mother of a kind common the
world over, but especially in Italy. She was willing to take advantage of
the earnings of her daughters, but she would never have induced them to
take the path of evil. There her virtue stopped short.