Sealed Lips — page 201: what you’re looking at

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

SEALED LIPS, 193 as she had intended, she remained there over a week. She left overwhelmed with caresses, prom- ising, as one promises many things in society, to visit St. Petersburg the next year. “When the emperor sees you and the empress hears you,” they said to her, “you will never return to France.” She was too clear sighted not to see that she owed this enthusiasm—at least a great part of it—to Prince Kemeneff; when she saw him so assiduous at first, she had a defiant feeling, fearing that some day he would demand recompense for services ren- dered. But Serge Kemeneff was a gentleman in deeds as well as thoughts, slighting women only when they delighted to be scorned. In early life the prince had been fortunate enough to meet a very beautiful, worthy woman, who would not ls- ten to him. This was a very useful lesson, and obliged him to believe in the virtue of women or at least in the possibility of it, which isa great deal. | Since that time the recklessness of his age and race, his trips from one end of Europe to the other, the different people he had met, the examples before his eyes, all these had given him this mixture of frivol- ity and philosophy, passionate ardor, and easy re- signation which distinguishes certainmen. Kem- eneff loved Jenny more sincerely than he had ever loved before, and if it would not have seriously compromised his interests, he would have married her if possible. It is difficult for men like us, who GoOmichboo KS