Moths by Ouida — page 230: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

226 MOTHS. / displease Prince Zouroff in—mere trifles of ceremonies and ob servances that I forget, for Iam very forgetful, you know.” ‘‘ Of little things, pennant: thoughtful people often are. Big brains do not easily hold trifles. So,;Madame de Sonnaz plays tha, part of Mentor to you about these little packets of starch that the beau monde thinks are the staff of life? That is kind of her, for I think no one ever more completely managed to throw the starch ever their left shoulder than she has done!” ‘¢You do not like her?’ ‘‘Oh, one always likes great ladies and pretty woman. Not that she is pretty, but she has du charme, which is perhaps more, All I intended to say was, that she is not invariably sincere, and it might be as well that you should remember that if she be in- timate enough with you to give you counsels——’; ‘‘ My husband told me to always listen to and follow what she said. He has, I believe, a great esteem for her.” Correze swore an oath, that only a foxglove heard, as he stooped to gather it. There was a great disgust on his mobile epi that she did not see, as he was bending down among the ossoms, ‘No doubt,” he said, briefly; ‘‘ esteem is not exactly what the © Duchesse Jeanne has inspired or sought to inspire; but M. Zouroft possibly knows her better than I can do——” ‘ Butis she not a good woman?’ Vere asked, with a little sternness coming on her delicate face. Correze laughed a little; yet there was a great compassion in his eyes as he glanced at her. ? ‘Good? Madame Jeanne? Iam afraid she would laugh very much if she heard you. Yes, she is very good for five minutes after she has left the confessional—for she does go to confess, though I cannot imagine her telling truth there. It would be trop ovourgeoise.” ‘‘ You speak as if she were indeed not good!” ‘“‘Good? bad? If there were only good and bad in this world it would not matter so much,” said Correze, a little recklessly and atrandom, ‘Life would not be such a disheartening affair ag itis. Unfortunately the majority of people are neither one nor the other, and have little inclination for either crime or virtue, It would be almost as absurd to condemn them as to admire them. They are like tracts.of shifting sand, in which nothing good or bad can take root. Tomethey are more despairing to contemplate than the darkest depth of evil: out of that may comg such hope as comes of redemption and remorse, but in the vast, frivolous, featureless mass of society there is no hope. It is like a feather bed, in which the finest steel must lose point and power.” ‘*But is the Duchesse de Sonnaz characterless? Frivolous, ‘aan ag but surely not characterless?” said Vere, with that ad- erence to the simple point of argument and rejection of all dis- cursiveness which had once made her the despair of her mother. ‘See for yourself, princess,” said Correze, suggestively. ** What she has, or has not, of character may well become your study. When we are intimate with any person it is very needful ¢o know them well; what one’s mere acquaintances are "<r i ~COmMIG ,00kKS { ‘ ry \ (efe)