The stomach is
made to yield to the orders of coquetry. The awakening comes too late.
A fashionable woman's whole life is in contradiction to the laws of
nature, and nature is pitiless. She has no sooner risen than she makes
an elaborate morning toilet, and thinks of the one which she means to
wear in the afternoon. The moment she is dressed she has to receive
and make visits, and go to the Bois either on horseback or in a
carriage. She must practise the art of smiling, and must keep her mind
on the stretch to invent new compliments which shall seem neither
common nor far-fetched. All women do not succeed in this. It is no
surprise, therefore, to find a young woman who entered fashionable
society fresh and healthy, faded and worn out at the end of three
years. Six months spent in the country will hardly heal the wounds of
the winter. We hear continually, in these days, of mysterious
ailments,--gastritis, and so forth,--ills unknown to women when they
busied themselves about their households. In the olden time women only
appeared in the world at intervals; now they are always on the scene.
Clementine found she had to struggle for her supremacy. She was cited,
and that alone brought jealousies; and the care and watchfulness
exacted by this contest with her rivals left little time even to love
her husband.
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