A woman may have all the brains in the world, but without push she might as well give up the struggle.
That was what brought me up in spite of four husbands and six children," pursued Madame, while she took out a small flask from one of the drawers of her desk and measured out, as she remarked in parenthesis, "a little stimulant." "Yes, I had a great success in my line, and if I could only have kept clear of men, I might have saved a fortune to retire on in my old age.

But I had a natural taste for men, and they were the ruin of me.

As soon as I lost one husband and managed to get on a bit, another would come, and I couldn't resist him.

I never could resist marriage; that was the undoing of me as a woman of business." "Four husbands, and yet you were remarkably successful," observed Gabriella, because it was the only thing with a cheerful sound she could think of to utter, and an intermittent cheerful sound was all that Madame required from a listener when she was under the enlivening influence of brandy.
"But think what I might have done with my talent if I had remained a widow, as you have done.

It was my misfortune to attract men whether I wanted to or not," wheezed Madame, wiping her eyes; "some women are like that." "So I have heard," murmured Gabriella, seeing that Madame paused for the note of encouragement.
"I don't suppose that has been your trouble, for there's a stand-offishness about you that puts men at a distance, and they don't like to be put at a distance.