Thus more than one neighbor preferred the _casus belli_ to the ratification of treaties of peace.
It was, in truth, a singular life that was led for six months.

The most loyal fraternity was practiced without any fuss in this circle, in which everything was for all, and good or evil fortune shared.
There were in the month certain days of splendor, when no one would have gone out without gloves--days of enjoyment, when dinner lasted all day long.

There were others when one would have almost gone to Court without boots; Lenten days, when, after going without breakfast in common, they failed to dine together, or managed by economic combination to furnish forth one of those repasts at which plates and knives were "resting," as Mademoiselle Mimi put it, in theatrical parlance.
But the wonderful thing is that this partnership, in which there were three young and pretty women, no shadow of discord was found amongst the men.

They often yielded to the most futile fancies of their mistresses, but not one of them would have hesitated for a moment between the mistress and the friend.
Love is born above all from spontaneity--it is an improvisation.
Friendship, on the contrary, is, so to say, built up.

It is a sentiment that progresses with circumspection.