threw aside her veil, exclaiming--

"He! bien messieurs et dames! vous ne connaissez donc plus votre pauvre
Rosalie!"

Such was one of many pleasantries by which we were diverted and amused.
Idle fancies these indeed, and such as sterner judgments may deem
trifling or absurd, yet not uninteresting, since many of them evidently
afford vestiges of classic times and manners, transmitted through the
course of ages; nor unuseful, since they tend to smooth and adorn the
rugged way of life, and to strew its flinty path with flowers.

With the charms and accomplishments which I have described, (and the
sketch can convey but a faint idea of those which she actually
possessed,) it cannot be supposed that Rosalie was destitute of
admirers. She had, indeed, had several, but their suits were all
unsuccessful. She had been addressed in turn by the _medecin_ of the
place--by the son of the President of the Tribunal du Commerce--and by a
nephew to a Monsieur de V----, the seigneur who resided at a
neighbouring chateau. But they were all, more or less, improper
characters; the _medecin_ was a gamester; the president's son a
drunkard, a character utterly despised in these parts; while the nephew
to the seigneur, was actually a _mauvais sujet_! What the French
precisely understand by a _mauvais sujet_, I never could exactly make
out; for, when impelled by curiosity to inquire, my queries were always
met by such a volley of vituperation, as left one altogether in the dark
with regard to the real nature of the charge. On the whole, I presume,
we are to consider a _mauvais sujet_ as a culprit, compared with whose
transgressions, the several enormities of gaming, drinking, and the
like, sink into mere peccadilloes.