The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

96 REYNOLDS’ WORKS Durands saw what was going on, but they were by no means shocked thereat, nor did Madame Durand venture the slightest remonstrance. In the first place, those things are not thought of so much in France as they are in this country; and in the second place, the Viscount de Chateauneuf failed not to make the Durands some very handsome presents almost immediately after his connectton with Mrs. Chester- field had begun. Nor were the servants at the little villa forgotten, and a liberal douceur, presented to each, ensured the secrecy that was thus sought to be obtained. We have said that a fortnight had elapsed since the com- mencement of that amour, and we must now direct the reader’s attention to a particular morning, when the follow- ing scene took place. In a sumptuously furnished apartment at the chateau on the eminence, the viscount and viscountess were seated at breakfast. The young lady was, as Madame Durand had described her, eminently beautiful, with chestnut hair, dark blue eyes, and a transparent complexion. Of slender shape, she possessed a figure the lightness of which was re- plete with elegance and grace, but not of too sylphid a symmetry to be without well-developed proportions. She had not that vivacity which usually characterizes the women of France, but her manners, as well as her style of beauty, would have led a stranger to pronounce her a native of England. She was more tranquil than the gay Parisian ladies are wont to be; modest, unassuming, and without affectation, she was as incapable of coquetry or of flirting as she was averse to the fulsome adulation which is offered up at the shrine of female beauty in the brilliant circles of fashion. Thus, when she sought to be very cheerful, in the hope of pleasing her husband, the endeavour was visibly forced, because she was too unskilled in the arts of dissimu- lation to conceal it. But let us listen to their discourse, as they are seated at the breakfast-table between nine and ten o’clock on the particular morning of which we are speaking. ‘““ My dear Jules,” said the viscountess, after a long pause, and now speaking with a considerable degree of hesitation, though in the most affectionate manner, “‘ I hope you will not forget that you have guests to dinner this evening.”’ ““ Ah, I remember! ’”’ he ejaculated, with an air of vexa- CONNIE NO KS (E(0)