For a year his domination over the beauteous Madame Ceres had been known to the whole universe.

The provinces, whither news and fashions only arrive after a complete revolution of the earth round the sun, were at last informed of the illegitimate loves of the Cabinet.

The provinces preserve an austere morality; women are more virtuous there than they are in the capital.
Various reasons have been alleged for this: Education, example, simplicity of life.

Professor Haddock asserts that this virtue of provincial ladies is solely due to the fact that the heels of their shoes are low.

"A woman," said he, in a learned article in the "Anthropological Review", "a woman attracts a civilized man in proportion as her feet make an angle with the ground.