“To conclude, if by chance you should lose the lover, you will find in his place the father of your children.  In this, my dear child, lies the whole secret of social life.  Sacrifice everything to the man whose name you bear, the man whose honor and reputation cannot suffer in the least degree without involving you in frightful consequences.  Such sacrifice is thus not only an absolute duty for women of our rank, it is also their wisest policy.  This, indeed, is the distinctive mark of great moral principles, that they hold good and are expedient from whatever aspect they are viewed.  But I need say no more to you on this point.

“I fancy you are of a jealous disposition, and, my dear, if you knew how jealous I am!  But you must not be stupid over it.  To publish your jealousy to the world is like playing at politics with your cards upon the table, and those who let their own game be seen learn nothing of their opponents’.  Whatever happens, we must know how to suffer in silence.”

She added that she intended having some plain talk about me with Macumer the evening before the wedding.

Raising my mother’s beautiful arm, I kissed her hand and dropped on it a tear, which the tone of real feeling in her voice had brought to my eyes.  In the advice she had given me, I read high principle worthy of herself and of me, true wisdom, and a tenderness of heart unspoilt by the narrow code of society.  Above all, I saw that she understood my character.  These few simple words summed up the lessons which life and experience had brought her, perhaps at a heavy price.  She was moved, and said, as she looked at me: 

“Dear little girl, you’ve got a nasty crossing before you.  And most women, in their ignorance or their disenchantment, are as wise as the Earl of Westmoreland!”

We both laughed; but I must explain the joke.  The evening before, a Russian princess had told us an anecdote of this gentleman.  He had suffered frightfully from sea-sickness in crossing the Channel, and turned tail when he got near Italy, because he had heard some one speak of “crossing” the Alps.  “Thank you; I’ve had quite enough crossings already,” he said.

You will understand, Renee, that your gloomy philosophy and my mother’s lecture were calculated to revive the fears which used to disturb us at Blois.  The nearer marriage approached, the more did I need to summon all my strength, my resolution, and my affection to face this terrible passage from maidenhood to womanhood.  All our conversations came back to my mind, I re-read your letters and discerned in them a vague undertone of sadness.

This anxiety had one advantage at least; it helped me to the regulation expression for a bride as commonly depicted.  The consequence was that on the day of signing the contract everybody said I looked charming and quite the right thing.  This morning, at the Mairie, it was an informal business, and only the witnesses were present.