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"So much the worse for those who keep up the fashion. The only

happy marriages I know are marriages of prudence."

"Yes, but then how often the happiness of these prudent marriages

flies away like dust just because that passion turns up that they

have refused to recognize," said Vronsky.

"But by marriages of prudence we mean those in which both parties

have sown their wild oats already. That's like scarlatina-one has

to go through it and get it over."

"Then they ought to find out how to vaccinate for love, like

smallpox."

"I was in love in my young days with a deacon," said the Princess

Myakaya. "I don't know that it did me any good."

"No; I imagine, joking apart, that to know love, one must make

mistakes and then correct them," said Princess Betsy.

"Even after marriage?" said the ambassador's wife playfully.

"'It's never too late to mend.'" The attache repeated the English

proverb.