—What, Veronica, you fell so easily! They say that it is only the first step which is painful, but it seems hardly to have been painful to you.
—Oh, Monsieur le Curé, we women are full of faults, and we deserve only eternal damnation.
—I do not say that, Veronica. Certainly in this circumstance all the fault lies on your seducer, but I should have preferred more struggle on your part.
—You men are very good with your struggle. To hear you, we never make enough resistance. Would one not say that the poor women are made of another paste than you, and that they ought to be harder?
—No, but it is necessary to know how to govern one's passions. That is the noble, the lofty, the meritorious thing. Resist temptation, everything lies in that.
[PLATE III: THE LEG. "Oh, the lovely little lass, how pretty she is like this…">[
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—Everything lies in that, I know it well; but what would you? I had lost my head entirely like Monsieur Braqueminet. And I did not know what he wanted, or what he was going to do. I only understood when it was too late.
—Ah, Veronica, you singular woman, you have made me quite beside myself with your stories.
—It was you who wished it.