Volume VIII Part 50 (2/2)

There was a pensive expression in her eyes, and it was easy to see that, while her agile fingers worked, her brain was busy with thoughts

But the old lady suddenly turned round her head

”Berthe,” she said, ”read so out of the newspapers forin the world”

The young girl took up a newspaper, and cast a rapid glance over it

”There is a great deal about politics, grand Are there no accounts of love affairs? Is gallantry, then, dead in France, that they no longer talk about abductions or adventures as they did forh the columns of the newspaper

”Here is one,” she said ”It is entitled: 'A Love-Drah her wrinkles ”Read that for me,” she said

And Berthe co A wife, in order to avenge herself on her husband's mistress, had burned her face and eyes She had left the assize Court acquitted, declared to be innocent, arandmother moved about excitedly in her chair, and exclaimed:

”This is horrible--why, it is perfectly horrible! See whether you can find anything else to read for ain made a search; and further down in the reports of criminal cases at which her attention was still directed She read:

”'Gloo, allowed herself to yield to the ee herself on her lover, whose heart proved fickle, she shot him with a revolver The unhappyof arding her as the victim of illicit love, and honorably acquitted her'”

This tirand voice, she said

”Why, you are iven you love, the only allureallantry, the only distraction of our dull hours, and here are youup with it vitriol and revolvers, as if one were to put on of Spanish wine”

Berthe did not seeranded herself Remember she was rand your head with, you young girls of to-day?”

Berthe replied:

”But randallantry, gave a sudden leap

”It is love that is sacred,” she said, ”Listen, child, to an old wo, long experience ofin common

We marry to found a family, and we form families in order to constitute society Society cannot dispense with e If society is a chain, each family is a link in that chain In order to weld those links, ays seek for ether suitable conditions; we must combine fortunes, unite similar races, and aim at the common interest, which is riches and children We marry only once, my child, because the world requires us to do so, but we may love twenty times in one lifetie, you see, is law, and love is an instinct, which i a crooked path The world has made laws to combat our instincts--it was necessary to ht not to resist them too much, because they come from God, while the laws only come from men

If we did not perfu, as we put sugar into drugs for children, nobody would care to take it just as it is”

Berthe opened her eyes widely in astonishrandrandain to invoke the defunct God of gallantries She exclainantly: