Good for a beginning; but once a mother, if you are not a mother above all things you are lost. Be with your Lucien as I am with my Alfred. Alfred tells me he loves me; he does all he can to prove it to me. I have beautiful healthy children whom he adores; for each one of them he has made a million-what more can I ask? He tells me that he is going to his office, that he is going to his club, or that he is going to see his friends. I believe him. Men have ways of their own for amusing themselves that we must accept. They have what we believe to be passions, what they call necessities, but to be exact they are only habits. They wait long enough before becoming husbands that we may manage them when they do. For my part, I never ask my husband where he has been; he tells me what he will and I am convinced. At all events, I make him think that I believe he is not deceiving me. Men, my dear, are like flying kites, the more cord you give them the better you can hold them. When Alfred happens to be in bad humor,-which is very rare-I say to him: "You are weary staying in the house: go dine with your friends. Go and see some of your lady friends, it will amuse you. I will remain with the children." He kisses me, and goes; and the others have the benefit of his bad humor; he talks the nonsense that men like to talk in the evening, and then he comes back to me at one or two o'clock in the morning all fresh and new. FRANCINE.

FRANCINE.

When Gaston was weaned I came to tell the news to Lucien. That was eight days ago. THÉRÈSE.

Well?

FRANCINE.

Well, he kissed me on the forehead and said to me, So much the better, darling! you are going to be able to sleep now," and he went hunting with his father. They have but just returned this morning.

Oh don't be afraid. It will not be what you think. I am silly in appearance, but in appearance only. I am not one of those who thinks that another man can make a woman forget the man she loves, and who deceives her; on this account one would never stop, for there is no chance that the second would be any better than the first, or the inevitable third any better than the second. When we love our husband, those who pretend to supplant us seem to us like simple imbeciles. When we love our husband no longer, if we have married them without restraint, as you and I have done, a man who pleased us more than the other, if a time arrives when we do not inspire him with love, and he does not enjoy our society, it is madness, or shameful to risk another trial with a gentleman who offers secretly, without respect, without sacrifice, without love, I know not what shameful pastime, what degrading compensation of carriage and hotel.

Francine!

THÉRÈSE.

FRANCINE.

Do not be offended when I am serious, more than you are when I am gay. I am exasperated !

I am exasperated! And if Lucien is untrue to me I shall be revenged, that is certain, but not as others do. "So much the better darling! you are going to be able to sleep now." You will see if I

I learned to cook just as I have learned to read, to write, to draw, to play the piano, to speak English and German, to sing in Italian, to ride horseback, to skate, to hunt, to drive, as I have learned the waltz, the polka, and all the figures of the cotillion, in the end to find a husband. That is what all the girls do, is it not, gentlemen, with the wish to please you? And ought they not to force themselves to be just as perfect as possible to merit the honor and the happiness of passing a few moments with you, and for which they dedicate their whole lives? (To Lucien.) And you, brother, will you have some tea? LUCIEN (who reads a journal). No! Thanks!