Gaudissart II by Honoré de Balzac
page 11 of 17 (64%)
page 11 of 17 (64%)
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they have come by courier direct from the manufacturers at Lahore."
"Oh! I see," said she; "they are much more like the thing I want." The shopman kept his countenance in spite of inward irritation, which communicated itself to Duronceret and Bixiou. The Englishwoman, cool as a cucumber, appeared to rejoice in her phlegmatic humor. "What price?" she asked, indicating a sky-blue shawl covered with a pattern of birds nestling in pagodas. "Seven thousand francs." She took it up, wrapped it about her shoulders, looked in the glass, and handed it back again. "No, I do not like it at all." (_Je n'ame pouinte_.) A long quarter of an hour went by in trying on other shawls; to no purpose. "This is all we have, madame," said the assistant, glancing at the master as he spoke. "Madame is fastidious, like all persons of taste," said the head of the establishment, coming forward with that tradesman's suavity in which pomposity is agreeably blended with subservience. The Englishwoman took up her eyeglass and scanned the manufacturer from head to foot, unwilling to understand that the man before her was eligible for Parliament and dined at the Tuileries. |
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