'"
"Did you think and act thus, Louisa?" said Major du Trouffle, in a
sad and anxious tone, looking his wife firmly in the eye.
Louisa laughed with calm and unconcern.
"My friend," said she, "would I have told all this to you, if I had
committed the faults I charge upon others? I have been inactive but
observant; that has been my amusement, my only distraction, and my
observations have filled me with amazement and abhorrence. I have
drawn from these sources profound and philosophic lessons. I have
studied mankind, and with full conviction I can assure you the war
is not at an end, and, instead of the palm of peace, the apple of
discord will flourish. Men no longer believe in constancy or
honesty, every man suspects his neighbor and holds him guilty, even
as he knows himself to be guilty. Every woman watches the conduct of
other women with malicious curiosity; she seems to herself less
guilty when she finds that others are no better than herself; and
when, unhappily, she does not find that her friend is false or
faithless, she will try to make her appear so; if the truth will not
serve her purpose, she will, by slander and scandal, draw a veil
over her own sins.
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