She will never be neglected for
glory, ambition, politics, art--those prostitutes who for her are
rivals. Then fops have the courage to cover themselves with ridicule
in order to please a woman, and her heart is full of gratitude towards
the man who is ridiculous for love. In fine, a fop can be no fop
unless he is right in being one. It is women who bestow that rank. The
fop is love's colonel; he has his victories, his regiment of women at
his command. My dear fellow, in Paris everything is known, and a man
cannot be a fop there _gratis_. You, who have only one woman, and who,
perhaps, are right to have but one, try to act the fop! . . . You will
not even become ridiculous, you will be dead. You will become a
foregone conclusion, one of those men condemned inevitably to do one
and the same thing. You will come to signify _folly_ as inseparably as
M. de La Fayette signifies _America_; M. de Talleyrand, _diplomacy_;
Desaugiers, _song_; M. de Segur, _romance_. If they once forsake their
own line people no longer attach any value to what they do. So,
foppery, my friend Paul, is the sign of an incontestable power over
the female folk. A man who is loved by many women passes for having
superior qualities, and then, poor fellow, it is a question who shall
have him! But do you think it is nothing to have the right of going
into a drawing-room, of looking down at people from over your cravat,
or through your eye-glass, and of despising the most superior of men
should he wear an old-fashioned waistcoat? .
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