until they become the steady paramours of men, and then they are true and constant.  Often they are kept and regarded more like wives than mistresses.  I should not do entire justice to this class if I were to convey the idea that all of them are thus debauched.  Many marry poor young men, but such is not usually the case; a poor young man seeks a wife with a small dowry.  They have little hope of wedded life—­it will never offer itself to them.  Their shop-life is dreary, monotonous, and sometimes exacting.  If they will desert it, pleasure presents an enticing picture; a life of idleness, dancing, and a round of amusements.

I was very much struck by a remark made to me by one of the purest men in France—­that a Frenchman is more apt to be jealous of his mistress than his wife, and that as a general rule, a mistress is more true to her lover than a wife is to her husband.  This is horrible, yet to a certain extent I am convinced it is true.  And it may be so, and women be no more to blame in the matter than the other sex.  To-day, in the fashionable society of our great cities, how much does it injure a wealthy young man’s prospects for matrimony, if it is a well-known fact that he is a libertine?  And how long can such a state of things continue without dragging down the women who marry such men?  If a lady cares not if her lover is a libertine, she cannot possess much of genuine virtue.  The fashionable men of Paris keep mistresses—­so do those of all classes, the students, perhaps, according to their numbers, being worse in this respect than all others.  It is not strange, such being the case, that the women are frail.

One thing is specially noticeable among the ladies of Paris—­the care with which they are guarded before marriage, and the freedom of their conduct after.  In countries where there is almost universal virtue among women, the faith in them is strong, and a freedom of intercourse between the sexes is allowed previous to marriage, which is never tolerated in such a place as Paris.  In New England it is not thought improper for a young gentleman and lady to enjoy a walk together in the country, and alone, but in France it would ruin the reputation of a woman.  A friend of mine in London warmly invited a young friend of his in Paris to come over and make his family a visit on some special occasion.  The Parisian wrote back that he should like nothing better than such a trip, but that business would not allow of it.  “Then,” wrote back my friend, “let your sister come.”  The reply was decided:  “Oh, no! it would never do for the young lady to make such a trip alone, for the sake of her reputation.”  It would have struck this Frenchman as a very singular fact, if he had known that in America a young lady will travel thousands of miles alone, without the slightest harm to her reputation.