Come, come, you don't want to hear all the world saying that I've tempted you away from your home?
I should have too vile a reputation! What would people think of me?
Only swear that you'll always love me, because the moment you go with another woman--" Tears choked her utterance, and he intervened with kisses and said: "You're beside yourself; it's impossible!" "Yes, yes," she rejoined, "you must.

But I'll be reasonable.

After all, she's your wife, and it isn't as if you were to play me false with the firstcomer." And she continued in this strain, giving him the most excellent advice.
She even spoke of God, and the count thought he was listening to M.
Venot, when that old gentleman endeavored to sermonize him out of the grasp of sin.

Nana, however, did not speak of breaking it off entirely: she preached indulgent good nature and suggested that, as became a dear, nice old fellow, he should divide his attentions between his wife and his mistress, so that they would all enjoy a quiet life, devoid of any kind of annoyance, something, in fact, in the nature of a happy slumber amid the inevitable miseries of existence.

Their life would be nowise changed: he would still be the little man of her heart.