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238 my mother's haughty temper was fairly subdued by this; she never could allude to the circumstance without tears." "After all," said Mr. Congreve, who was present, "madame la duchesse well understood the principles by which your sex obtain dominion. I always thought that there was great truth in what the French lover said, on being asked by what means his mistress had obtained such an empire over him: C'est qu'elle me querelle toujours." "I rather think," said a youthful Italian, just presented to me as la Signora Rosalba, and who was employed in finishing a miniature of the duchess, "that nothing gives offence between people who really love each other. The tempers may be irritated, but there is still a secret sympathy in the hearts." "Moreover," replied Congreve, "it was a sort of flattery to the duke. It showed that she valued the power of plaguing him more than her own fairest ornament. Flattery is the real secret by which a woman keeps her lover."