Women, for the most part, have been so disappointed by their husbands that they have not courage enough to begin again with somebody else.

I myself have been met by this obstacle several times in my attempts at seduction." At the moment when Professor Haddock ended his unpleasant remarks, Mademoiselle Eveline Clarence entered the drawing-room and listlessly handed about tea with that expression of boredom which gave an oriental charm to her beauty.
"For my part," said Hippolyte Ceres, looking at her, "I declare myself the young ladies' champion." "He must be a fool," thought the girl.
Hippolyte Ceres, who had never set foot outside of his political world of electors and elected, thought Madame Clarence's drawing-room most select, its mistress exquisite, and her daughter amazingly beautiful.
His visits became frequent and he paid court to both of them.

Madame Clarence, who now liked attention, thought him agreeable.

Eveline showed no friendliness towards him, and treated him with a hauteur and disdain that he took for aristocratic behaviour and fashionable manners, and he thought all the more of her on that account.

This busy man taxed his ingenuity to please them, and he sometimes succeeded.