FIRST EPOCH.  Things go on altogether too well.  Caroline buys little account books to keep a list of her expenses in, she buys a nice little piece of furniture to store her money in, she feeds Adolphe superbly, she is happy in his approbation, she discovers that very many articles are needed in the house.  It is her ambition to be an incomparable housekeeper.  Adolphe, who arrogates to himself the right of censorship, no longer finds the slightest suggestion to make.

When he dresses himself, everything is ready to his hands.  Not even in Armide’s garden was more ingenious tenderness displayed than that of Caroline.  For her phoenix husband, she renews the wax upon his razor strap, she substitutes new suspenders for old ones.  None of his button-holes are ever widowed.  His linen is as well cared for as that of the confessor of the devotee, all whose sins are venial.  His stockings are free from holes.  At table, his tastes, his caprices even, are studied, consulted:  he is getting fat!  There is ink in his inkstand, and the sponge is always moist.  He never has occasion to say, like Louis XIV, “I came near having to wait!” In short, he hears himself continually called a love of a man.  He is obliged to reproach Caroline for neglecting herself:  she does not pay sufficient attention to her own needs.  Of this gentle reproach Caroline takes note.

SECOND EPOCH.  The scene changes, at table.  Everything is exceedingly dear.  Vegetables are beyond one’s means.  Wood sells as if it came from Campeche.  Fruit?  Oh! as to fruit, princes, bankers and great lords alone can eat it.  Dessert is a cause of ruin.  Adolphe often hears Caroline say to Madame Deschars:  “How do you manage?” Conferences are held in your presence upon the proper way to keep cooks under the thumb.

A cook who entered your service without effects, without clothes, and without talent, has come to get her wages in a blue merino gown, set off by an embroidered neckerchief, her ears embellished with a pair of ear-rings enriched with small pearls, her feet clothed in comfortable shoes which give you a glimpse of neat cotton stockings.  She has two trunks full of property, and keeps an account at the savings bank.

Upon this Caroline complains of the bad morals of the lower classes:  she complains of the education and the knowledge of figures which distinguish domestics.  From time to time she utters little axioms like the following:  There are some mistakes you must make!—­It’s only those who do nothing who do everything well.—­She has the anxieties that belong to power.—­Ah! men are fortunate in not having a house to keep.—­Women bear the burden of the innumerable details.

THIRD EPOCH.  Caroline, absorbed in the idea that you should eat merely to live, treats Adolphe to the delights of a cenobitic table.