Lady B.—“To satisfy our vanity! How do you mean?”
La Comtesse (smiling).—“Come now, I appeal to you: is it simply to be a little cooler that we have our bodies cut low?”
Lady B.—“No, of course not; we like to be décolletées, because it is the fashion; because, if we did not, we should appear ridiculously prudish and outlandish. Alas! we are the slaves of fashion!”
La Comtesse.—“My dear, if your form resembled the poor little Baronne de S.’s, do you believe that any fashion in the world would make you wear a low-necked dress?... You would soon reconcile to yourself the thought of appearing prudish, ridiculous, and outlandish.”
Lady B.—“Then you excuse those two impertinent creatures?”
La Comtesse.—“I am almost inclined to do so. I do not see why a man should not take a pleasure in looking at that which it seems to give us pleasure to show.”
Lady B.—“Well, I can only tell you that such a thing would never have happened to me in England.”
La Comtesse.—“I can quite believe that. I have seen your countrymen look at Vesuvius as unmoved as if they had been looking at the chimneys of St. Etienne or Birmingham.... Besides, my dear, had you not a fan with you to protect you?”
Lady B.—“I have taken note of what you said just now, you know; that if women are coquettish, it is to satisfy their vanity. Perhaps you will succeed in explaining to me why there are women who carry their coquetry as far as la galanterie?”
La Comtesse (seriously).—“A coquette satisfies her own vanity; a woman who misconducts herself satisfies the vanity of a man. She is a fool.”