"What! would you make out that his neglect of his duty is my fault?"
"Great heavens, child, whose fault is it, if it is not yours? That is what I say, you do n't deserve to have a toy if you let some strange child snatch it away from you."
"I protest, Mrs. Abington, that I scarce take your meaning. I have nothing to reproach myself with. I have ever been the best of wives. I have never gone gadding about to balls and routs as some wives do; I have remained at home with my baby."
"Exactly, and so your poor husband has been forced to ask certain actresses to bear him company at those innocent pleasures, which he, in common with most gentlemen of distinction, enjoy. Ah,'t is you domestic wives that will have to answer for your husbands' backslidings."
"Is it possible that--why, madam, you bewilder me. You think that I should--I do n't know what you think--oh, I'm quite bewildered!"
"Why, child, have you not seen enough of the world to learn that a woman is most attractive to a man when he perceives that she is admired by other men? Have you not seen that a man seeks to marry a particular woman, not because he cares so greatly for her himself, but because he believes that other men care greatly for her? Your good husband is, I doubt not, fond enough of you; but when he perceives that you think much more of your baby than you do of him--when he perceives that the men whom he considered his rivals before he carried you _off_ from them, no longer follow in your train, is he to be blamed if he finds you a trifle insipid? Ah, let me tell you, my sweet young wife, a husband is a horse that requires the touch of a spur now and again. A jog-trot is not what suits a spirited creature."
"Heavens, madam! You mean that he--my husband--would be true to me if I only I--I--"
"If only you were not too anxious that he should keep pace with the jog-trot into which you have fallen, my dear. Do you not fancy that I know he wishes me to sup with him only because he is well aware that a dozen men will be longing to mince him when they see him mincing my chicken for me?"
"But I would go with him to the Gardens if he would ask me, only--ah, no one would want to mince him on my account."
"You silly one! Cannot you see that you must place him in the position of wanting to mince the other man?"