In the Days of My Youth by Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards
page 254 of 620 (40%)
page 254 of 620 (40%)
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vampire--a ghoul--the hideous thing we call in polite parlance a _Fille
de Marbre."_ Thus, with much gravity and emphasis, spoke Herr Franz Müller, lying on his back upon a very ricketty sofa, and smoking like a steam-engine. A cup of half-cold coffee, and a bottle of rum three parts emptied stood beside him on the floor. These were the remains of his breakfast; for it was yet early in the morning of the day following my great misadventure at the Opéra Comique, and I had sought him out at his lodgings in the Rue Clovis at an hour when the Quartier Latin was for the most part in bed. "Josephine, at all events, is not of the stuff that _Filles de Marbre_ are made of," I said, smiling. "Perhaps not--_mais, que voulez-vous?_ We are what we are. A grisette makes a bad fine lady. A fine lady would make a still worse grisette. The Archbishopric of Paris is a most repectable and desirable preferment; but your humble servant, for instance, would hardly suit the place," "And the moral of this learned and perspicuous discourse?" "_Tiens_! the moral, is--keep our fair friend in her place. Remember that a dinner at thirty sous in the Palais Royal, or a fête with fireworks at Mabille, will give her ten times more pleasure than the daintiest repast you could order at the Maison Dorée, or the choicest night of the season at either opera house. And how should it be otherwise? One must understand a thing to be able to enjoy it; and I'll be sworn Mam'selle Josephine was infinitely more bored last night than |
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