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Rh can still astonish ears habituated to vulgar exercises; but all the same, a single string is very risky! I have therefore ordered him to marry and, above all, to be faithful to his wife. Fidelity will bring satiety, satiety will bring continence, and continence will perhaps be the true philter. A young wife is not so dangerous as one thinks for a man on the down grade. She is a favourable stimulant and, at the same time, a moderating element. In fine, Hervart may make a very good husband. In any case it's an experiment that interests me. I should be quite capable—if it gives good results, that is, at least a fine child—of yielding myself to an old temptation. I would give up my practice and go and cultivate roses and camelias in some corner of your earthly Paradise, in the Saire valley, where one sees palms among the willow-trees!"

"I had almost forgotten one important point in our hypotheses. The young wife must have a virtuous temperament, without coldness, but also without sensual curiosity; a good reproducing animal, apt in the pleasure of conceiving rather than in the pleasure of love-making; one of those who, after having been blushing