The Argosy — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

Divided. 73 Clothilde muttered spitefully. ‘The others are mere boys, and not good enough for my fine madame. But now that there is a rich man of good family dancing attendance on her, we shall see where all her boasted virtue goes to.” ‘‘ As for her beauty, it is all flash,” rejoined Madame de Fréville critically. ‘‘ It will not last.” “She is too tall for my taste,” added a young dandy of nineteen. He imagined himself madly in love with Mademoiselle Clothilde, who, when artfully concealed under paint and feathers, might with some strength of imagination have been put down as no more than twenty years his senior, and he was ready enough to disparage Venus herself if it would please the lady of his affections. “She has the temper of a virago,” continued Mademoiselle Clothilde. ‘‘ For my part, I do not wonder that her husband could not put up with her. These women are angels to the world, but in the domestic circle—pouf !—they upset everything, with their passions and rages. I commiserate Monsieur de Keéeriadec from my heart !” Evidently this opinion was not shared by Comte d’Edmond. He was a thorough man of the world, who could be agreeable enough when he chose; but was too well used to flattery, and a shallow popularity, to think it worth while to exert himself to please anyone but himself. However, blasé as he was, Mademoiselle Lenard inter- ested him more than most women did; chiefly because she treated him with the same careless disdain that she vouchsafed her other admirers ; and because a virtuous woman, in society or out of it, was to him an enigma which rarely crossed his path. Having a good deal of tact and diplomacy in his dealings with the fair sex, he soon discerned the weak spots in Mademoiselle Lenard’s character. She was young, impulsive and, thanks to the care of her uncle and aunt, peculiarly ignorant of life. Anyone who treated her with fatherly frankness, apparently without any ulterior motive of love- making, easily won her confidence; and Comte d’Edmond had managed to put himself upon the comfortable footing of friend and adviser, with just enough of deferential admiration to appeal to the womanly vanity which d’Edmond knew so well how to indulge, without any appearance of doing so. This was the hero whose attention to Mademoiselle Lenard caused Madame de Fréville and Mademoiselle Clothilde such heart-burnings. He was a brilliant conversationalist ; and the brisk volley of repartee that was flying between him and Mademoiselle Lenard kept around them a group of amused young men, who stirred them on by a laugh a a joke to fresh efforts whenever the conversation threatened to ag. Mademoiselle Lenard was coming off victorious— perhaps d’Edmond allowed her the advantage because he liked to see her face and eyes glow with eager triumph—and some sally of hers had VOL, XLVIII. ig CoOnnicooOolKSs (SO) am