made you take it into your head to start up this hare?"

"There are many things to be said on this subject," said he, in a
sententious tone, thinking that his intervention might be useful in
getting his friend out of the awkward position in which he found himself,
"an infinite number of things may be said; books without number have been
written upon this subject. Every one has his own system and plan of
conduct as to the way of looking at and acting upon it."

"And what would be yours, you consummate villain?" asked Christian;
"would you be as cruel a husband as you are an immoral bachelor? That
usually happens; the bolder a poacher one has been, the more intractable
a gamekeeper one becomes. What would be your system?"

"Hum! hum! you are mistaken, Bergenheim; my boyish love adventures have
disposed me to indulgence. 'Debilis caro', you know! Shakespeare has
translated it, 'Frailty, thy name is woman!'"

"I am a little rusty in my; Latin and I never knew a word of English.
What does that mean?"

"Upon my word, it means, if I were married and my wife deceived me, I
should resign myself to it like a gentleman, considering the fragility of
this enchanting sex."

"Mere boy's talk, my friend! And you, Gerfaut?"

"I must admit," replied the latter, a little embarrassed, "that I have
never given the subject very much thought. However, I believe in the
virtue of women."