The Price He Paid — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

50 LIVING IN REBELLION. sideration, they might well, she argued, bear the constraint which was the unavoidable result of the situation. Gabrielle, too, had quickly grown accustomed to her new surroundings. The grandeur and cere- mony of the Government-house, the scrupulous punctuality and strict etiquette which there pre- vailed, the boundless respect and prompt service of the domestics, to whom the slightest gesture of the master’s hand was a command—all this astonished the young lady, and impressed her with a certain awe. Sufficient judgment, however, Gabrielle did pos- sess to see that the existent order of things in this parvenu’s house was far more fitting and in better taste than that she had known at home, and she frequently tormented her mother with remarks on the subject. The baroness was sitting on the little sofa in her boudoir, turning over the leaves of a fashion-book,. A great reception was to be held at the castle in the course of the next few days. The highly im- portant question of what dresses should be worn was now awaiting decision, and both mother and daugh- ter were zealously applying themselves to the study which had such attractions for at least one of them. “Mamma,” said Gabrielle, who was sitting by her mother, holding some stray leaves, of the fashion- book. “Uncle Arno declared yesterday that these great parties were a troublesome duty, imposed on him by his position. He does not take the smallest pleasure in them.” | The baroness shrugged her shoulders. “Hetakes pleasure in nothing but work. I never met with a man who gave himself so little rest and recreation as my brother-in-law.” “Rest?” repeated Gabrielle. “Asif he even knew what it meant, or could endure itif he did know! Quite early in the morning he is sitting at his writ- ing-table, and at midnight I often see a light in his study. Now he is busy in his own bureaus, then in the other departments; after that, he drives out, surveying improvements here and there, and in- Gomicbooks (E(0)