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"We no longer belong to ourselves We are no longer beings, but things

We stand first in their self-esteem, last in their esteem We have women

who call themselves our friends, but they are friends like Prudence,

women ere once kept and who have still the costly tastes that their

age does not allow theuests at table Their friendship is carried to the point of

servility, never to that of disinterestedness Never do they give you

advice which is not lucrative It h to theet dresses or a bracelet

out of thee from time to tiht's bouquets,

and they borrow our shawls They never render us a service, however

slight, without seeing that they are paid twice its value You yourself

sahen Prudence brought et from the duke, how she borrowed five hundred francs, which

she will never pay me back, or which she will pay me in hats, which will

never be taken out of their boxes

"We can not, then, have, or rather I can not have more than one possible