Monsieur de Malouet came suddenly to me, handed me a whist card, and taking me aside: "What the duse has got into you ?" he said.
"Into me?
why, nothing!" "Have I not warned you?
It's quite a serious matter.

Look at Breuilly! It is the only weakness of that gallant man; every one respects it here.

Do likewise, I beg of you." From the weakness of that gallant man, it results that his wife is condemned in society to perpetual quarantine.

The fighting propensities of a husband are often but an additional attraction for the lightning; but men hesitate to risk their lives without any prospect of possible compensation, and we have here a man who threatens you at least with a public scandal, not only before harvest, as they say, but even before the seed has been fairly sown.

Such a state of affairs manifestly discourages the most enterprising, and it is quite rare that Madame de Breuilly has not two vacant seats on her right and on her left, despite her nonchalant grace, despite her great creole eyes, and despite her plaintive and beseeching looks, that seem to be ever saying: "Mon Dieu! will no one lead me into temptation ?" You would doubtless think that the evident neglect in which the poor wife lives ought to be, for her husband, a motive of security.