You try to explain the nature of the affair. But in the first place, women do not understand business, and in the next they do not wish to seem to understand it. Your dear, delighted Caroline says you were wrong to take her desires, her groans, her sighs for new dresses, in earnest. She is afraid of your venture, she is frightened at the directors, the shares, and above all at the running expenses, and doesn’t exactly see where the dividend comes in. Axiom.--Women are always afraid of things that have to be divided. In short, Caroline suspects a trap: but she is delighted to know that she can have her carriage, her box, the numerous styles of dress for her baby, and the rest. While dissuading you from engaging in the speculation, she is visibly glad to see you investing your money in it. FIRST PERIOD.--“Oh, I am the happiest woman on the face of the earth! Adolphe has just gone into the most splendid venture. I am going to have a carriage, oh! ever so much handsomer than Madame de Fischtaminel’s; hers is out of fashion. Mine will have curtains with fringes. My horses will be mouse-colored, hers are bay,--they are as common as coppers.” “What is this venture, madame?” “Oh, it’s splendid--the stock is going up; he explained it to me before he went into it, for Adolphe never does anything without consulting me.” “You are very fortunate.” “Marriage would be intolerable without entire confidence, and Adolphe tells me everything.” Thus, Adolphe, you are the best husband in Paris, you are adorable, you are a man of genius, you are all heart, an angel. You are petted to an uncomfortable degree. You bless the marriage tie. Caroline extols men, calling them “kings of creation,” women were made for them, man is naturally generous, and matrimony is a delightful institution. For three, sometimes six, months, Caroline executes the most brilliant concertos and solos upon this delicious theme: “I shall be rich! I shall have a thousand a month for my dress: I am going to keep my carriage!” If your son is alluded to, it is merely to ask about the school to which he shall be sent. SECOND PERIOD.--“Well, dear, how is your business getting on?--What has become of it?--How about that speculation which was to give me a carriage, and other things?--It is high time that affair should come to something.--It is a good while cooking.--When _will_ it begin to pay? Is the stock going up?--There’s nobody like you for hitting upon ventures that never amount to anything.” One day she says to you, “Is there really an affair?” If you mention it eight or ten months after, she returns: “Ah! Then there really _is_ an affair!”