_Travelled friend, knowing that persons in the neighborhood are listening for his reply_--"Well, yes. To a certain extent, that is." (_It suddenly occurring to him that nobody can know any thing about the Legitimists, he says confidently_.) "They haven't the air, you know, of the genuine old Legitimist _noblesse_. As to BONAPARTE'S nobility, I don't know much about them." _He flatters himself that he has said a neat thing, but is posed by an unexpected question from the Sympathetic Young Lady, who asks--_"Who are the great Legitimist families, nowadays?" "Well, the--the--(_can't think of any name but St. Germain, and so says boldly_,) the St. Germains, and all the rest of 'em, you know." (_He is sorely tempted to add the St. Clouds and the Luxembourgs, but prudently refrains_.) The second act shows the husband lavishing every sort of tenderness and jewelry upon the wife, who is developing a strong tendency to flirt. She insists that her sister LOUISE shall join the family and accept the position of Acting Assistant Wife and Mother, while she herself gives her whole mind to innocent flirtation. _Worldly-wise Matron of evident experience_--"The girl's a fool. Catch me taking a pretty sister into my house!" _Brutal Husband of the Matron suggests_--"But she might have done so much worse, my dear. Suppose she had given her husband a mother-in-law as a housekeeper?" _Matron, with suppressed fury_--"Very well, my dear. If you can't refrain from insulting dear mother, I shall leave you to sit out the play alone." (_Sh--sh--sh! from every body. Curtain rises again_.) More attentions to pretty wife, repaid by more flirtation at her husband's expense. Finally FROU-FROU decides that LOUISE manages the household so admirably that misery must be the result. As a necessary consequence of this logical conclusion, she rushes out of the house with a gesture borrowed from RIP VAN WINKLE, and an expressed determination to elope. _Jocular Man remarks_--"Now, then, CLARKE can go to Chicago, get a divorce, and marry LOUISE." _This practical suggestion is warmly reprobated by the ladies who overhear it, one of whom remarks with withering scorn_--"Some people think it _so_ smart to ridicule every thing. To my mind there is nothing more vulgar." _The Jocular Man, refusing to be withered, assures the Travelled Man confidentially that_--"The play is frightful trash, and as for the acting, why, your little milliner in the Rue de la Paix could give MISS ETHEL any odds you please." (_Both look as though they remembered some delightfully improper Parisian dissipation, and in consequence rise rapidly in the estimation of the respectable ladies who are within hearing_.) After the orchestra has given specimens of every modern composer, the fourth act begins. FROU-FROU is found living at Venice with her lover. Her husband surprises her. He is pale and weak; but, returning her the amount of her dower, goes out to shoot the lover.