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.