That is why I shall not depict the little person, whom I am going to make
better known to you, as a model of virtue. She is an inquisitive girl, she
is vehement, she has been brought up in an atmosphere where depravity is
more generally inhaled than holiness. I should then be badly advised in
presenting you with an angel of candour and wisdom.

An angel! She is at that age indeed, at which foolish men call women
angels.

"Before they are wed, they are angels so gentle,
But quickly they change to vulgarian scolds,
She-demons who truly make hell of their homes."

[Footnote 1: H. Taine (Notes sur Paris).]




XXVII.


OF SUZANNE IN PARTICULAR.

"An exalted, romantic imagination of
vivid dreams, peopled with sumptuous
hotels, with smart equipages, fêtes,
balls, rubies, gold and azure. This is
what I have most surely gathered at
this school and is called: a brilliant