Moths by Ouida — page 292: what you’re looking at

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

} ya 288 _. MOTHS. “Tf thank * she said very low. : ‘The party roke up rapidly ; there was a certain embarrass ment and apprehension ieft on all the guests; there was not one there who had not understood the public rebuke given to Sergius Zouroff, He had understood it no less. But for his pride’s sake, which would not let him own he fei¢ the disgrace of it, he would have struck the lips of the singer dumb. When the white room was empty, he paced to and ire with quick, uneven steps. His face was livid, his eyes were sav- age, his breath came and went rapidly and heavily ; for the first time in all his years a man had rebuked him. ‘* You asked him here to insult me?” he cried, pausing sudden- ly before his wife. She looked him full in the face. ‘*No.. There would be no insult ina poem uniess your con- science mace it seem one.” She waited a moment for his answer, but he was silent; he only stared at her with a stifled, bitter oath; she made a slight courtesy to him, and left his presence without anotier word. ‘“You should honor his courage, Sergius,” said Madame Nela- guine, who remained beside him; ‘‘ you must admit it was verg courageous.” A terrible oath was his answer. ‘‘Courageous!” he said, savagely, at last; **Courageous? The man knows well enough that it is impossiblefor me to resent a mere song; I should be ridiculous, farcewr; and he knows that I cannot fight him; he is a stage-singer fy ‘* tle thinks himself your equal,” she answered, quietly. ‘‘ But probably your wife is rigiit; it is only your conscience makes you see an insult in a poem.” ‘* My conscience!” Sergius Zouroff laughed aloud; then he said, suddenly, ‘‘Is he Vera’s lover?’ ‘*You are a fool,” said the Princess Nadine, with tranquil scorn. ‘* Your wife has never had any lover, and I think never will have one. And what lover would rebuke you? Lovers are like husbands: they condone.” _“* Tf he be not her lover, why should he care?” Madame Nelaguine shrugged her shoulders. ‘“My dear Sergius, people are different. Some feel angry at things that do not in the least concern them, and go out of thei way to redress wrongs that have nothing to do with them: thes are the exaltes members of the world. Correze is one of theni. Have you not said he is an artist? Now, I am no artist, and never am exaltee, and yet I aiso do not like to see the golden cup ‘ina aside for the cabaret brutal. Good-night.” Then she too left im. | The next day Madame Nelaguine went up to her sister-in-law on the sea-terrace of the house. Vere was sitting by the statute of the wingless Love; she had a book in her hand, but she was not reading; her face was very calm, but there was a sleepless look inher eyes. The Princesse Nadine, who never in her life had known any mental or physical fear, felt afraid of her: she ak dressea her a little nervously, | comicbooks.co