those circumstances, a clever man seeking to raise his wife in public
opinion would do his best to impose her upon the world as a remarkable
woman, to justify the step he had taken by acknowledging that in some
ways she was something more than ordinary women. The best way of
compelling respect from others is to pay respect to her at home, and
to leave her absolute mistress of the house. Well, and yet it is
enough to awaken one's vanity to see how frightened he is of seeming
to listen to me. I must be in the right ten times over if he concedes
a single point.'

"(Emphatic negative gestures from du Bruel at every other word.)

"'Oh, yes, yes,' she continued quickly, in answer to this mute
dissent. 'I know all about it, du Bruel, my dear, I that have been
like a queen in my house all my life till I married you. My wishes
were guessed, fulfilled, and more than fulfilled. After all, I am
thirty-five, and at five-and-thirty a woman cannot expect to be loved.
Ah, if I were a girl of sixteen, if I had not lost something that is
dearly bought at the Opera, what attention you would pay me, M. du
Bruel! I feel the most supreme contempt for men who boast that they
can love and grow careless and neglectful in little things as time
grows on. You are short and insignificant, you see, du Bruel; you love
to torment a woman; it is your only way of showing your strength. A
Napoleon is ready to be swayed by the woman he loves; he loses nothing
by it; but as for such as you, you believe that you are nothing
apparently, you do not wish to be ruled.--Five-and-thirty, my dear
boy,' she continued, turning to me, 'that is the clue to the riddle.
--"No," does he say again?--You know quite well that I am thirty-seven.
I am very sorry, but just ask your friends to dine at the _Rocher de
Cancale_. I _could_ have them here, but I will not; they shall not