A Parisian Romance — page 180: what you’re looking at

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

A PARISIAN ROMANCE. 171 cheek, which she quickly wiped away with her handkerchief. “They are, indeed!” she answered, steadying her voice. “I thank you for speaking to them as you > did. Itreally seemed as if they took pleasure in mortifying and torturing me.” “Really, my dear madam,” said the baron, with an admirable assumption of sympathy, “you take too much to heart the foolish chatter of those two little idiots.” “There are many like them,I assure you,” re- turned Marcelle, bitterly. “It would be better if I letermined to see no one; for every visit that I make or receive, I have to undergo the same pun- ishment, the same torture.” “That I can well understand,” said Chevrial, “but you allow it to affect you too much; if the present is a trifle hard, you must think of the future. There may be a few bad weeks to live through, but your situation cannot fail to be improved.” “And how?” asked Marcelle, despairingly. “We expect nothing, we ask for nothing.” The baron drew his chair a little closer, and_ fixed — his eyes upon her with bold admiration. “Who knows?” he said, insinuatingly. “There are, perhaps, people who are more interested in you than you think.” Marcelle was too much absorbed in her own un- happiness to notice the look that accompanied the GEomicbooks (E(©) mn