Led Astray and The Sphinx - Two Novellas In One Volume by Octave Feuillet
page 70 of 209 (33%)
page 70 of 209 (33%)
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Madame de Palme had lost something of her gayety, and that a vague
preoccupation clouded the serenity of her brow. I could see her dancing-partners surprised at her frequent absence of mind; she still followed the whirl, but she no longer led it. Under pretext of fatigue, she would leave suddenly and abruptly her partner's arm, in the midst of a waltz, to go and sit in some corner with a pensive and even a pouting look. If there happened to be a vacant seat next to mine, she threw herself into it, and began from behind her fan some whimsical and disjointed conversation like the following: "If I cannot be a hermit, I am going to become a nun. What would you say, if you saw me enter a convent to-morrow?" "I should say that you would leave it the day after to-morrow." "You have no confidence in my resolutions?" "When they are unwise, no." "I can only form unwise ones, according to you?" "According to me, you waltz admirably. When a person waltzes as you do, it's an art, almost a virtue." "Is it customary to flatter one's friends?" "I am not flattering you. I never speak a single word to you that I have not carefully weighed, and that is not the most earnest expression of my thought. I am a serious man, madam." |
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