Volume I Part 47 (1/2)
”Youelse is impossible When a husband has been nice for six months, or a year, or two years, he necessarily becoular brute He does not put hi, but shows hihtest provocation, or without any provocation whatever One cannot love a man hom one lives constantly” ”That is quite true” ”Isn't it? What was I saying? I cannot the least re that all husbands are brutes!” ”Yes, brutesall of them” ”That is quite true” ”And then?” ”What do youjust then?” ”I don't know because you did not say it!” ”But I had so to tell you” ”Oh! yes, that is true; well?” ”Oh! I have got it”
”Well, I a you that I can find lovers everywhere” ”How do you et to some fresh place, I take notes and make my choice” ”You make your choice?” ”Yes, of course I do First of all, I take notes I ask questions Above all, a enerous; is not that so?” ”It is quite true!” ”And then he must please me, as a man” ”Of course” ”Then I bait the hook for him” ”You bait the hook?” ”Yes, just as one does to catch fish Have you never fished with a hook and line?” ”No, never” ”You are wrong; It is very a, and besides that, it is instructive Well then, I bait the hook”
”How do you do it?” ”How stupid you are Does not one catch theany choice? And they really think that they choosethe foolsbut it is ho choose
always Just think, when one is not ugly, nor stupid, as is the case with us, all men aspire to us, allwithout exception We look theht, and e have selected one, we fish for him” ”But that does not tell ; I allow myself to be looked at, that is all” ”You allow yourself to be looked at?” ”Why yes; that is quite enough When one has allowed oneself to be looked at several ti, a man immediately thinks you the ins to ive hi anything to hi I have hi to his qualities”
”And do you catch all whom you please, like that?” ”Nearly all” ”Oh! So there are some who resist?” ”Sometimes” ”Why?” ”Oh! Why? A man is a Joseph for three reasons Because he is in love with another woman
Because he is excessively timid, or because he ishow shall I say it?incapable of carrying out the conquest of a woman to the end” ”Oh! my dear! Do you really believe?” ”I am sure of it There are many of this latter class, many, manymany more than people think Oh! they look just like everybody elsethey strut like peacocks No, when I said peacocksI made a mistake, for they could not display themselves” ”Oh! my dear” ”As to the timid, they are soht not to undress the to bed alone, when there is a looking-glass in their rooetic, make use of looks, and squeeze their hands, and even that is useless soin When one faints in their presenceas a last resourcethey try to bring you roundand if you do not recover your senses iet assistance
”Those whom I prefer myself, are other women's lovers I carry them by assaultatatat the point of the bayonet, my dear!” ”That is all very well, but when there are no men, like here, for instance?”
”I find them!” ”You find them But where?” ”Everywhere But that reo, rolles There was nothing thereyou knohat Icountry houses there were a few disgusting boors, who cared for nothing but shooting, and who lived in country houses which had not even a bathrooo to bed covered with perspiration, and whom it would be impossible to improve, because their principles of life are dirty
Now just guess what I did!” ”I cannot possibly” ”Ha! ha! ha! I had just been reading a nue Sand's novels which exalt the man of the people, novels in which the workmen are sublime, and all the men of the world are criminals In addition to this I had seen Ruy Blas the winter before, and it had struck ood-looking young fellow of two and twenty who had studied for a priest, but had left the seust Well, I took him as footman!” ”Oh! And then? What afterwards?”
”Thenthen, ood deal of my person I did not entice this rustic on, I simply inflamed him!” ”Oh! Andree!” ”Yes, and I enjoyed the fun very ! Well he did not count forwhileas well, while she was undressing ht fire like a thatched roof Then, at meals, I used continually to talk about cleanliness, about taking care of one's person, about baths and shower baths, until at the end of a fortnight he bathed in the river h to poison the whole chateau I was even obliged to forbid hi hiht never to use scent except Eau de Cologne”
”Oh! Andree!”
”Then, I took it into ether a library suitable to the country I sent for a few hundred moral novels, which I lent to all our peasants, and all my servants A few booksa fewpoetical bookssuch as excite the irlshad found their way into ave theht him lifea funny sort of life” ”Oh! Andree!”
”Then I grew faiven him the name of Joseph And, ot as thin asas a barn-door cockand rolled his eyes like an idiot I was extrehtful summers I ever spent” ”And then?” ”Then? Oh!
yes Well, one day when my husband ay froe and to drive me into the woods It arm, very warm There!” ”Oh Andree, do tell lass of Chartreuse, otherwise I shall empty the decanter myself Well, I felt ill, on the road” ”How?” ”You are very stupid I told hi well, and that hethere, I told hi, and that he must unlace ht off?” ”Oh! dear no, not the least” ”Well?”
”Well, I was obliged to remain unconscious for nearly an hour, as he could find nome round But I was very patient, and did not open my eyes”
”Oh! Andree! And what did you say to hi, as I was unconscious? I thanked hie, and he droveinto the gate!” ”Oh! Andree! And is that all?” ”That is all” ”You did not faint more than that once?”
”Only once, of course! I did not want to take such a fellow forafter that?” ”Yes, of course I have hi to complain of”
”Oh! Andree! And is he in love with you still?” ”Of course he is”
”Where is he?”
The little Baroness put out her hand to the wall and touched the electric bell, and the door opened almost immediately, and a tall footne all round hi to faint; send my lady's maid to me”
The man stood motionless, like a soldier before his officer, and fixed an ardent look on his reat idiot, we are not in the wood to-day, and Rosalie will attend to me better than you would” He turned on his heels and went, and the little Baroness asked nervously: ”But what shall you say to your ! No, I shall et her to unlace me; it will relieve my chest, for I can scarcely breathe I am drunket up from my chair”
THE INN