think that you can employ their recipe in dealing with your
mother-in-law. She will be the first aid-de-camp of her daughter, for
if the mother did not take her daughter's side, it would be one of
those monstrous and unnatural exceptions, which unhappily for husbands
are extremely rare.

When a man is so happy as to possess a mother-in-law who is
well-preserved, he may easily keep her in check for a certain time,
although he may not know any young celibate brave enough to assail
her. But generally husbands who have the slightest conjugal genius
will find a way of pitting their own mother against that of their
wife, and in that case they will naturally neutralize each other's
power.

To be able to keep a mother-in-law in the country while he lives in
Paris, and vice versa, is a piece of good fortune which a husband too
rarely meets with.

What of making mischief between the mother and the daughter?--That may
be possible; but in order to accomplish such an enterprise he must
have the metallic heart of Richelieu, who made a son and a mother
deadly enemies to each other. However, the jealousy of a husband who
forbids his wife to pray to male saints and wishes her to address only
female saints, would allow her liberty to see her mother.

Many sons-in-law take an extreme course which settles everything,
which consists in living on bad terms with their mothers-in-law. This
unfriendliness would be very adroit policy, if it did not inevitably
result in drawing tighter the ties that unite mother and daughter.
These are about all the means which you have for resisting maternal