Then, it is all very well to accept one liaison, but not two.
Such easiness in the matter is very like calculation, and puts the man who consents to it, even out of love, very much in the category of those who, in a lower stage of society, make a trade of their connivance, and a profit of their trade." "Ah, my dear fellow, how old-fashioned you are! How many of the richest and most fashionable men of the best families I have seen quite ready to do what I advise you to do, and without an effort, without shame, without remorse, Why, one sees it every day.

How do you suppose the kept women in Paris could live in the style they do, if they had not three or four lovers at once?
No single fortune, however large, could suffice for the expenses of a woman like Marguerite.

A fortune of five hundred thousand francs a year is, in France, an enormous fortune; well, my dear friend, five hundred thousand francs a year would still be too little, and for this reason: a man with such an income has a large house, horses, servants, carriages; he shoots, has friends, often he is married, he has children, he races, gambles, travels, and what not.

All these habits are so much a part of his position that he can not forego them without appearing to have lost all his money, and without causing scandal.

Taking it all round, with five hundred thousand francs a year he can not give a woman more than forty or fifty thousand francs in the year, and that is already a good deal.