Women of Modern France (Illustrated): Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 7 (of 10)Thieme, Hugo P. (Hugo Paul)
History
Women of Modern France (Illustrated): Woman: In all ages and in all countries Vol. 7 (of 10)
Thieme, Hugo P. (Hugo Paul)
France -- Social life and customs; Women -- France
When a mere girl she showed signs of a tempestuous future; she
was seductive, but impulsive, with an inborn love for the common
people--which is not always credited to her--and for democracy. These
qualities were quickened during her experience at Versailles, for
while there for a few days' visit she saw the pitiless social world in
all its orgies, revelries of luxury, and wanton extravagances.
There, also, she contracted that deep-seated hatred for the queen and
royalty.
There was, indeed, a long list of suitors for the hand of the
impulsive maiden; but owing to her views as to a husband and her
restless, unsettled state of mind, she could not decide upon any one
of them. To her mother, when urged to accept one, she said: "I should
not like a husband to order me about, for he would teach me only to
resist him; but neither do I wish to rule my husband. Either I am
much mistaken, or those creatures, six feet high, with beard on their
chins, seldom fail to make us feel that they are stronger; now, if the
good man should suddenly bethink himself to remind me of his strength
he would provoke me, and if he submitted to me he would make me
feel ashamed of my power." For such a woman marriage was certainly
a difficult problem. Finally, Roland de la Platières came within her
circle; and although somewhat adverse to him at first, after a number
of his visits she wrote: "I have been much charmed by the solidity of
his judgment and his cultured and interesting conversation." Just such
a man appealed to her nature and was in harmony with her views. After
months of monotonous life in the convent to which she had retired, she
at last consented to become the wife of Roland, not from expectations
of any fortune, but purely from a sense of devoting herself to the
happiness of an honorable man, to making his life sweeter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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