Also, I must tell you, all these souls which appear so
lofty have just a speck of madness in them, which we ought to know how
to take advantage of. By firmly resolving to have the upper hand and
never deviating from that aim, by bringing all our actions to bear on
it, all our ideas, our cajolery, we subjugate these eminently
capricious natures, which, by the very mutability of their thoughts,
lend us the means of influencing them."
"Good heavens!" cried the young wife in dismay. "And this is life. It
is a warfare----"
"In which we must always threaten," said the Duchess, laughing. "Our
power is wholly factitious. And we must never allow a man to despise
us; it is impossible to recover from such a descent but by odious
manoeuvring. Come," she added, "I will give you a means of bringing
your husband to his senses."
She rose with a smile to guide the young and guileless apprentice to
conjugal arts through the labyrinth of her palace. They came to a
back-staircase, which led up to the reception rooms. As Madame de
Carigliano pressed the secret springlock of the door she stopped,
looking at Augustine with an inimitable gleam of shrewdness and grace.
"The Duc de Carigliano adores me," said she. "Well, he dare not enter
by this door without my leave. And he is a man in the habit of
commanding thousands of soldiers. He knows how to face a battery, but
before me,--he is afraid!"
Augustine sighed. They entered a sumptuous gallery, where the
painter's wife was led by the Duchess up to the portrait painted by
Theodore of Mademoiselle Guillaume.
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