A Parisian Romance — page 164: what you’re looking at

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

A PARISIAN ROMANCE. 155 real trouble, the little every-day annoyances which were so irritating to her. “Yes,” said Madame de Targy, thoughtfully, “I fancy that she has registered a vow to expiate, by her own goodness and virtue, the faults of her mother. If so, it is not a case without precedent.” “As I say, I see her very little,” said Henri, “but when her husband happens to send me to his house on some matter of busines, she looks at me with tender, sympathetic eyes, as if to say, ‘You poor fellow! Are you very unhappy? And I long to answer, “No, indeed, I am not unhappy at all. I have experienced the pleasures of wealth, and I know now the joys of poverty; for poverty has its joys. They are rare, but the rarer they are, the sweeter they are. When I was rich, I was like those spoiled children, who are loaded down with cakes, sweetmeats, and toys, and who end by taking no pleasure in anything. Now, I am like a poor child, who has only two or three little playthings in his attic chamber, but how he values them! What care he takes of them! How he loves them!” “My brave boy!” murmured Madame de Targy, bending over her work to hide her emotion. Henri turned to Marcelle, who had listened to his words, with her eyes fixed indifferently upon vacancy. | “And you, Marcelle?” he said, gently. “Do you think that I talk nonsense?” Gomicbookssco ALA