DECEIT

Do you know, Vicomte, why I never remarried? It was certainly not for lack of any advantageous matches. It was purely so that no one should have the right to criticize my actions. It was not even for fear of not being able to do what I wish, for I should always have ended up doing that; but it was because it would have annoyed me that anyone had the right to complain about it. It was that in the end I wished to deceive only for my own pleasure, and not through necessity.

(Letter CLII, The Marquise de Merteuil to the Vicomte de Valmont)