A perennial, if ridiculous, coquetry sweetened her days and added sprightliness to the gay decline of her life.

Being frankly material, she had confined her energies to the two unending pursuits of men and money, and having captured four husbands and acquired a comfortable bank account, she might have been content, had she been as discreet as she was provident, to rest on her substantial achievements.

But the trouble with both men and money, when considered solely as rewards to enterprise, is that the quest of them is inexhaustible.

One's income, however large, may reasonably become larger, and there is no limit to the number of husbands a prudent and fortunate woman may collect.

And so age, which is, after all, a state of mind, not a term of years, was rendered harmless to Madame by her simple plan of refusing to acknowledge that it existed.