If many man fail to be masters in their own house this is not from lack of willingness, but of talent.  As for those who are ready to undergo the toils of this terrible duel, it is quite true that they must needs possess great moral force.

And really, as soon as it is necessary to display all the resources of this secret strategy, it is often useless to attempt setting any traps for these satanic creatures.  Once women arrive at a point when they willfully deceive, their countenances become as inscrutable as vacancy.  Here is an example which came within my own experience.

A very young, very pretty, and very clever coquette of Paris had not yet risen.  Seated by her bed was one of her dearest friends.  A letter arrived from another, a very impetuous fellow, to whom she had allowed the right of speaking to her like a master.  The letter was in pencil and ran as follows: 

“I understand that Monsieur C----- is with you at this moment.  I am
waiting for him to blow his brains out.”

Madame D----- calmly continued the conversation with Monsieur C-----. 
She asked him to hand her a little writing desk of red leather which
stood on the table, and he brought it to her.

“Thanks, my dear,” she said to him; “go on talking, I am listening to you.”

C----- talked away and she replied, all the while writing the
following note: 

“As soon as you become jealous of C----- you two can blow out each
other’s brains at your pleasure.  As for you, you may die; but brains
—­you haven’t any brains to blow out.”

“My dear friend,” she said to C-----, “I beg you will light this
candle.  Good, you are charming.  And now be kind enough to leave me and
let me get up, and give this letter to Monsieur d’H-----, who is
waiting at the door.”

All this was said with admirable coolness.  The tones and intonations of her voice, the expression of her face showed no emotion.  Her audacity was crowned with complete success.  On receiving the answer from the hand of Monsieur C-----, Monsieur d’H----- felt his wrath subside.  He was troubled with only one thing and that was how to disguise his inclination to laugh.

The more torch-light one flings into the immense cavern which we are now trying to illuminate, the more profound it appears.  It is a bottomless abyss.  It appears to us that our task will be accomplished more agreeably and more instructively if we show the principles of strategy put into practice in the case of a woman, when she has reached a high degree of vicious accomplishment.  An example suggests more maxims and reveals the existence of more methods than all possible theories.

One day at the end of a dinner given to certain intimate friends by Prince Lebrun, the guests, heated by champagne, were discussing the inexhaustible subject of feminine artifice.  The recent adventure which was credited to the Countess R. D. S. J. D. A-----, apropos of a necklace, was the subject first broached.  A highly esteemed artist, a gifted friend of the emperor, was vigorously maintaining the opinion, which seemed somewhat unmanly, that it was forbidden to a man to resist successfully the webs woven by a woman.