causing such a stir. But what I could perceive was the admirable good
sense manifested in everything she did and everything she said. Her
manner, at once ingenuous and reserved, and a certain blending of
unconstraint with modest pride, made her shine even among the women who
were the most admired and the most skilled in attracting attention. And
this is the place to mention that at first I was extremely shocked at
the tone and bearing of these women, whom everybody extolled; to me
they seemed ridiculous in their studied posings, and their grand society
manners looked very much like insufferable effrontery. Yes, I, so
intrepid at heart, and but lately so coarse in my manners, felt ill at
ease and abashed in their presence; and it needed all Edmee's reproaches
and remonstrances to prevent me from displaying a profound contempt for
this meretriciousness of glances, of toilets, and allurements which
was known in society as allowable coquetry, as the charming desire to
please, as amiability, and as grace. The abbe was of my opinion. When
the guests had gone we members of the family used to gather round the
fireside for a short while before separating. It is at such a time that
one feels an impulse to bring together one's scattered impressions and
communicate them to some sympathetic being. The abbe, then, would break
the same lances as myself with my uncle and cousin. The chevalier, who
was an ardent admirer of the fair sex, of which he had had but little
experience, used to take upon himself, like a true French knight, to
defend all the beauties that we were attacking so unmercifully. He would
laughingly accuse the abbe of arguing about women as the fox in the
fable argued about the grapes. For myself, I used to improve under the
abbe's criticisms; this was an emphatic way of letting Edmee know how
much I preferred her to all others. She, however, appeared to be more
scandalized than flattered, and seriously reproved me for the tendency
to malevolence which had its origin, she said, in my inordinate pride.