Come now, Marquis, retract your error; abandon your chimera, reserve
delicacy of sentiment for friendship; accept love for what it is. The
more dignity you give it, the more dangerous you make it; the more
sublime the idea you form of it, the less correct it is. Believe de la
Rochefoucauld, a man who knows the human heart well: "If you expect to
love a woman for love of herself," says he, "you will be much
mistaken."




X

The Sensation of Love Forms a Large Part of a Woman's Nature


The commentaries the Countess has been making you about her virtue,
and the refinement she expects in a lover, have certainly alarmed you.
You think she will always be as severe as she now appears to you. All
I have told you does not reassure you. You even esteem it a favor to
me that you stop with doubting my principles. If you dared you would
condemn them entirely. When you talk to me in that fashion, I feel at
liberty to say that I believe you. It is not your fault if you do not
see clearly into your own affair, but in proportion as you advance,
the cloud will disappear, and you will perceive with surprise the
truth of what I have been telling you.

The more cold blooded you are, or at least, as long as passion has not
yet reached that degree of boldness its progress will ultimately lead
you to, the mere hope of the smallest favor is a crime; you tremble at