Eusebe had ample time to meditate upon the aphorism so boldly
announced by Adéonne. For a whole year they lived and loved
together.
The young provincial had forgotten the great world, which, on its
part, troubled itself but little about him.
The comédienne loved with all the fire of a passionate nature. But
she experienced another sentiment in harmony with love. The docile
character of Eusebe, and his complete ignorance of life, rendered
Adéonne the arbiter of his destiny, and she, whose past career
had been worse than a blank, was proud to have an acknowledged
_protégé_.
She did not, however, abuse the ascendency she had obtained. More
than once, upon her knees before Eusebe, she had said,--
“Oh, how good you are not to wish to be the master!”
When women who live outside of social laws reach the age of twenty,
they regard humanity with a shrug of the shoulder; they despise
men, because their weaknesses are well known to them. These women
often shed bitter tears, not because they feel their degradation or
their servitude, but because they have not masters more deserving
of respect.