You must be careful, Marquis, not to go to extremes; you must not show the Countess enough love to lead her to understand the excess of your passion.  Give her something to be anxious about; compel her to take heed lest she lose you, by giving her opportunities to think that she may.  There is no woman on earth who will treat you more cavalierly than one who is absolutely certain that your love will not fail her.  Like a merchant for whose goods you have manifested too great an anxiety to acquire, she will overcharge you with as little regard to consequences.  Moderate, therefore, your imprudent vivacity; manifest less passion and you will excite more in her heart.  We do not appreciate the worth of a prize more than when we are on the point of losing it.  Some regulation in matters of love are indispensable for the happiness of both parties.  I think I am even justified in advising you on certain occasions to be a trifle unprincipled.  On all other occasions, though, it is better to be a dupe than a knave; but in affairs of gallantry, it is only the fools who are the dupes, and knaves always have the laugh on their side.  Adieu.

I have not the conscience to leave you without a word of consolation.  Do not be discouraged.  However redoubtable may be the Chevalier, let your heart rest in peace.  I suspect that the cunning Countess is making a play with him to worry you.  I have no desire to flatter you, but it gives me pleasure to say, that you are worth more than he.  You are young, you are making your debut in the world, and you are regarded as a man who has never yet had any love affairs.  The Chevalier has lived; what woman will not appreciate these differences?

XXI

The Comedy of Contrariness

Probity in love, Marquis?  How can you think of such a thing?  Ah, you are like a drowned man.  I shall take good care not to show your letter to any one, it would dishonor you.  You do not know how to undertake the manoeuvres I have advised you to make, you say?  Your candor, your high sentiments made your fortune formerly!  Well, love was then treated like an affair of honor, but nowadays, the corruption of the age has changed all that; love is now nothing more than a play of the humor and of vanity.

Your inexperience still leaves your virtues in an inflexible condition that will inevitably cause your ruin, if you have not enough intelligence to bring them into accord with the morals of the times.  One can not now wear his sentiments on his sleeve.  Everything is show; payment is made in airs, demonstrations, signs.  Everybody is playing a comedy, and men have had excellent reasons for keeping up the farce.  They have discovered the fact that nobody can gain anything by telling the actual truth about women.  There is a general agreement to substitute for this sincerity a collection of contrary phrases.  And this custom has proved contagious in cases of gallantry.