_La Comtesse._--"Well, well, that is tyranny, or I never understood the word. Not content with having been a despot all his life, he must continue after his death to make his wife feel an authority that he can only exercise by proxy. There! really, it is only in England that you find husbands of that stamp." _Lady B._--"I don't agree with you. I think a husband shows his wisdom in protecting his wife against the fortune-hunters that might be attracted by her money." _La Comtesse._--"But a woman is not a baby that does not know one thing from another ... and if your husbands did not treat you as minors...." _Lady B._--"Besides, after all, you must admit that if a man loves his wife, it is not pleasant for him to think that there is perhaps an individual who is only waiting for him to die, in order to marry his widow and enjoy comfortably a fortune that has perhaps cost him great trouble to amass." _La Comtesse._--"I do not admit any such injunctions. A woman is capable of devotion and fidelity. But as for imposing upon her a sacrifice for which she is to be paid, I call it insulting. I should never feel anything but contempt for the memory of a husband who had treated me in such a way.... I should marry again and have done with him and his money." _Lady B._--"I can forgive jealousy in those who love deeply; at least I excuse it." _La Comtesse._--"And so can I, but what you were speaking of a moment ago is not jealousy, it is vanity, the vanity of a tyrant.... _A propos_ of vanity and wills, have you heard about the will of M. de R.... No? Well then, this is the kind of vanity I admit of: M. de R. kept up his reputation of a humorist and a good husband to his last moment. What did he do the night before his death but send for his notary, and, before his friends and relatives who were present, dictate to him the following will: 'I have loved my wife dearly, and I know that my wife has loved me dearly, and will regret me. I leave her all I have, to do as she pleases with, without having to consult anyone. I authorise her to marry again; I even advise her to do so; I do not fear competition.' Now, I can assure you that though Madame de R. is only thirty-five, and very pretty, she will never marry again. That is a French husband, my dear." _Lady B._--"I am very willing to believe all you tell me about French husbands, and love in married life, but why do not your novels show us something of that domestic happiness?" _La Comtesse._--"Ah! I stop you. You are going to speak to me of novels that treat of impossible society, of _blasé_ men and light women: but we have others, my dear Lady B. If we have 'Nana,' we have also 'Le Roman d'un Brave Homme,' 'L'Abbé Constantin,' 'Le Maître de Forges;' ... I could name them by the hundred. By the bye, have you ever read 'Monsieur, Madame, et Bébé'?" _Lady B._--"Have I read it! Ten times at least, and I shall read it many times more yet." _La Comtesse._--"I congratulate you."