“What is the world’s idea of a virtuous woman?  Are not men so unjust as to believe that the wisest woman is she who best conceals her weakness; or who, by a forced retreat puts herself beyond the possibility of having any?  Rather than accord us a single perfection, they carry wickedness to the point of attributing to us a perpetual state of violence, every time we undertake to resist their advances.  One of our friends said:  ’There is not an honest woman who is not tired of being so.’  And what recompense do they offer us for the cruel torments to which they have condemned us?  Do they raise up an altar to our heroism?  No!  The most honest woman, they say, is she who is not talked about, that is to say, a perfect indifference on the part of a woman, a general oblivion is the price of our virtue.  Must women not have much of it to preserve it at such a price?  Who would not be tempted to abandon it?  But there are grave matters which can not be overlooked.

“Dishonor closely follows upon weakness.  Old age is dreadful in itself, what must it not be when it is passed in remorse?  I feel the necessity of avoiding such a misfortune.  I calculated at first that I could not succeed in, doing so, without condemning myself to a life of austerity, and I had not the courage to undertake it.  But it gradually dawned upon me that the condition of a society woman was alone competent to reconcile virtue with pleasure.  From the smile on your face, I suspect such an idea appears to be a paradox to you.  But it is more reasonable than you imagine.

“Tell me this:  Is a society woman obliged to have an attachment?  Is she not exempt from tenderness?  It is sufficient for her to be amiable and courteous, everything on the surface.  As soon as she becomes expert in the role she has undertaken, then, the only mistrust the world has of her is that she has no heart.  A fine figure, haughty airs, caprices, fashionable jargon, fantasies, and fads, that is all that is required of her.  She can be essentially virtuous with impunity.  Does any one presume to make advances?  If he meet with resistance he quickly gives over worrying her, he thinks her heart is already captured, and he patiently awaits his turn.  His perseverance would be out of place, for she would notify a man who failed to pay her deference, that it was owing to arrangements made before he offered himself.  In this way a woman is protected by the bad opinion had of her.

“I read in your eyes that you are about to say to me:  The state of a professional society woman may injure my reputation, and plunge me into difficulties I seek to avoid.  Is not that your thought?  But do you not know, Monsieur, that the most austere conduct does not guard a woman from the shafts of malice?  The opinion men give of women’s reputation, and the good and wrong ideas they acquire of us are always equally false.  It is prejudice, it is a species of fatality which governs their judgment,