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Strange True Stories of Louisiana by George Washington Cable
page 90 of 317 (28%)

Presently, as by a magnetic power, my attention was drawn to a tall and
beautiful young lady dressed in white satin, with no ornaments except a
set of gold and sapphires, and for headdress a _résille_ the golden
tassels of which touched her neck. Ah! how quickly I recognized those
brown eyes faintly proud, that kind smile, that queenly bearing, that
graceful step! I turned to Charles du Clozel, who sat beside me, and said:

"That is the Countess de la Houssaye, isn't it?"

"Do you know her?"

"I see her for the first time; but--I guessed it."

Several times I saw her looking at me, and once she smiled. During the
last two acts she came and shook hands with us, and, caressing our hair
with her gloved hand, said her husband had seen papa's letter; that it was
from a dear friend, and that she came to ask Madame du Clozel to let her
take us away with her. Against this the baroness cried out, and then the
Countess Madelaine said to us:

"Well, you will come spend the day with me day after to-morrow, will you?
I shall invite only young people. May I come for you?"

Ah, that day! how I remember it!... Madame de la Houssaye was fully five
or six years older than Madame Carpentier, for she was the mother of four
boys, the eldest of whom was fully twelve.[19] Her house was, like Madame
du Clozel's, a single rez-de-chaussée surmounted by a mansard.... From
the drawing-room she conducted us to a room in the rear of the house at
the end of the veranda [galerie], where ... a low window let into a garden
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