Moths by Ouida — page 83: what you’re looking at

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

KK hee ee ' MOTHS. , 719 ‘All Paris! Such stuff! Asif men were not all alike. Really one would fancy you were in love with Vera yourself!” ‘Stop that!” said Lord Jura, sternly; and she was subdued, and said no more. ‘‘I shall go this evening,” he added, care- lessly; ‘‘and you may as well give me a book or a note or.some- thing for the women at Camelot; it will stay their tongues here.” ‘“‘[ have a tapestry pattern to send to your sisters,” said Lady Dolly, submissive but infuriated. ‘‘ What do you know about © Bergius Zouroff, Jack? I wish you would tell me?” ‘IT think you know it all very well,” said Lord Jura. “TI think you women know all about the vices under the sun, only ae don’t mind. There are always bookcases locked in every ibrary; I don’t know why we lock ’em; women know every- thing. Butif the man’s richit don’t matter. If the fellows we used to read about in Suetonius were alive now, you’d marry your girls to them and never ask any questions—except about settlements. It’s no use my saying anything; you don’t care. But I tell you all the same that if you give your daughter when she’s scarce sixteen to that beast, you might just as well strip her naked and set her up to auction like the girl in La Coupe ou La Femme!” ‘‘ You grow very coarse,” said Lady Dolly, coldly. Lord Jura left the room, and, in the morning, left the house. As the ‘*‘ Ephemeris”’went slowly, ina languid wind, across the Channel, in the gray twilight, he sat on deck and smoked, and grew heavy-hearted. He was not a book-learned man, and sel- dom read anything beyond the sporting papers or a French romance; but’some old verse, about the Fates making out of our pleasant vices whips to scourge us, crossed his mind as the woods and towers of Felicite receded from his sight. | He was young; he was his own master; he was Earl of Jura, and would be Marquis of Shetland. He could have looked into those grand, gray eyes of Vere Herbert’s with a frank and honest love; he could have been happy; only—only—only——! : The Maria Theresa fan came from Camelot, but Jura never re- turned. | That night there was a performance in the little theater; there was usually one every other night. The actors enjoyed them- selves much more than the guests at Felicite. They all lived in a little maisonnette in the park, idled through their days as they liked, and played when they were told. When his house-party bored him beyond endurance, Sergius Zouroff wandered away to that maisonnette in his park at midnight. That evening the piece on the programme was One that was very light. Zouroff stooped his head to Lady Dolly as they were | about to move to the theater. oan ‘‘Send your daughter to her bed; that piece is not fit for her ears,” : } : Lady Dolly stared and bit her lip. But sheobeyed. She wens back and touched Vere’s cheek with her fan and caressed her. ‘‘My sweet one, you look pale. ‘Go to your room; you do not | care much for acting,.and your health is so precious——* _ “He must mean it,” she thought, as they went into the pretty -~ : : com € aXefo) wis o a | ‘ An a Ss. ert co