Don't wait till you are ruined, especially as the Comte de N.is a fool, and nothing would prevent your still being Marguerite's lover.

She would cry a little at the beginning, but she would come to accustom herself to it, and you would thank me one day for what you had done.

Imagine that Marguerite is married, and deceive the husband; that is all.

I have already told you all this once, only at that time it was merely advice, and now it is almost a necessity." What Prudence said was cruelly true.
"This is how it is," she went on, putting away the papers she had just shown me; "women like Marguerite always foresee that some one will love them, never that they will love; otherwise they would put aside money, and at thirty they could afford the luxury of having a lover for nothing.

If I had only known once what I know now! In short, say nothing to Marguerite, and bring her back to Paris.