{"product_id":"2940015593686","title":"ARTISTS' WIVES","description":"PROLOGUE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_Stretched at full length, on the great divan of a studio, cigar in\u003cbr\u003emouth, two friends--a poet and a painter--were talking together one\u003cbr\u003eevening after dinner_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_It was the hour of confidences and effusion. The lamp burned softly\u003cbr\u003ebeneath its shade, limiting its circle of light to the intimacy of the\u003cbr\u003econversation, leaving scarcely distinct the capricious luxury of the\u003cbr\u003evast walls, cumbered with canvases, hangings, panoplies, surmounted by a\u003cbr\u003eglass roof through which the sombre blue shades of the night penetrated\u003cbr\u003eunhindered. The portrait of a woman, leaning slightly forward, as if to\u003cbr\u003elisten, alone stood out a little from the shadow; young with intelligent\u003cbr\u003eeyes, a grave and sweet mouth and a spirituel smile which seemed to\u003cbr\u003edefend the husband's easel from fools and disparagers. A low chair\u003cbr\u003epushed away from the fire, two little blue shoes lying on the carpet,\u003cbr\u003eindicated also the presence of a child in the house; and indeed from the\u003cbr\u003enext room, within which mother and child had but just disappeared,\u003cbr\u003ecame occasional bursts of soft laughter, of childish babble; the\u003cbr\u003epretty flutterings of a nest going off to sleep. All this shed over the\u003cbr\u003eartistic interior a vague perfume of family happiness which the poet\u003cbr\u003ebreathed in with delight:_\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"_Decidedly, my dear fellow?\" he said to his friend, \"you were in the\u003cbr\u003eright. There are no two ways of being happy. Happiness lies in this and\u003cbr\u003ein nothing else. You must find me a wife!_\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PAINTER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_Good Heavens, no! not on any account. Find one for yourself, if you are\u003cbr\u003ebent upon it. As for me, I will have nothing to do with it._\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE POET.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_And why?_\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PAINTER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_Because--because artists ought never to marry._\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE POET.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_That's rather too good. You dare to say that, and the lamp does not\u003cbr\u003ego out suddenly, and the walls don't fall down upon your head! But just\u003cbr\u003ethink, wretch, that for two hours past, you have been setting before me\u003cbr\u003ethe enviable spectacle of the very happiness you forbid me. Are you by\u003cbr\u003echance like those odious millionaires whose well-being is in-creased by\u003cbr\u003ethe sufferings of others, and who better enjoy their own fireside when\u003cbr\u003ethey reflect that it is raining out of doors, and that there are plenty\u003cbr\u003eof poor devils without a shelter?_\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PAINTER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_Think of me what you will. I have too much affection for you to help\u003cbr\u003eyou to commit a folly--an irreparable folly._\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE POET.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_Come! what is it? You are not satisfied? And yet it seems to me that\u003cbr\u003eone breathes in happiness here, just as freely as one does the air of\u003cbr\u003eheaven at a country window._\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PAINTER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_You are right, I am happy, completely happy, I love my wife with all my\u003cbr\u003eheart. When I think of my child, I laugh aloud to myself with pleasure.\u003cbr\u003eMarriage for me has been a harbour of calm and safe waters, not one in\u003cbr\u003ewhich you make fast to a ring on the shore, at the risk of rusting\u003cbr\u003ethere for ever, but one of those blue creeks where sails and masts are\u003cbr\u003erepaired for fresh excursions into unknown countries, I never worked as\u003cbr\u003ewell as I have since my marriage. All my best pictures date from then._\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE POET.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_Well then!_\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE PAINTER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e_My dear fellow, at the risk of seeming a coxcomb, I will say that I\u003cbr\u003elook upon my happiness as a kind of miracle, something abnormal and\u003cbr\u003eexceptional. Yes! the more I see what marriage is, the more I look back\u003cbr\u003ewith terror at the risk I ran. I am like those who, ignorant of the\u003cbr\u003edangers they have unwittingly gone through, turn pale when all is over,\u003cbr\u003eamazed at their own audacity._","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47161630458096,"sku":"2940015593686","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015593686","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}