"My dear friend," said the composer, in his most caressing voice, as
soon as the poor lad had drunk a couple of glasses of champagne, "we
are both good fellows, and we can speak to each other frankly. I have
not come here suspiciously. Beatrix loves me,"--this with a gesture of
the utmost self-conceit--"but the truth is, I have ceased to love her.
I am not here to carry her away with me, but to break off our
relations, and to leave her the honors of the rupture. You are young;
you don't yet know how useful it is to appear to be the victim when
you are really the executioner. Young men spit fire and flame; they
leave a woman with noise and fury; they often despise her, and they
make her hate them. But wise men do as I am doing; they get themselves
dismissed, assuming a mortified air, which leaves regret in the
woman's heart and also a sense of her superiority. You don't yet know,
luckily for you, how hampered men often are in their careers by the
rash promises which women are silly enough to accept when gallantry
obliges us to make nooses to catch our happiness.
Pages:
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360