Moths by Ouida — page 145: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MOTHS. } 141 * Quel beau role? and she is not eighteen yet,” said Madame de Sonnaz. with amusement..< .° ° 4%, Mas ica hy", & “It is what we marry good women for,” he saia, somewhat gloomily. ‘‘They never divert one; everyone knows that. Elles me savent pas s’encanailler.” Jeanne de Sonnaz laughed again, but her face had an angry irony in it. | ‘* Yes: nous nous encanaillons; that is our charm. A beautiful compliment. But it istrue. It is the charm of our novels, of our theaters, of our epoch. Le temps nous enfante. Things manage themselves drolly. A man like you gets a young angel; and an honest, stupid, innocent soul Hke my poor Paul gets —nie. Zouroft offered her no compliment and no contradiction; he was sitting gloomily amidst the chinoiseries and porcelains, but their intercourse had long passed the stage at which flattery is © needful. He was glad for the sake of peace that she was not an enemy of Vere’s; but he was annoyed to hear her praise his wife. Why did every one regard the girl as sacrificed? It offended and annoyed him. She had everything that she could want. Hun- ‘gorge of women would have asked no more admirable fate than was hers. “She is of the old type; the old type, pure are proud,” his friend pursued, unheeding his silence. ‘*‘We want to see it now and then. She would go grandly to the guillotine, but she will never understand her own times, and she will always havea con- tempt for them. She has dignity; we have not a scrap, we have forgotten what it was like; we go into a passion at the amount ef our bills; we play and never pay; we smoke and we wrangle. we have cafe-singers who teach us slang songs; we laugh loud, much too loud} we intrigue vulgarly, and, when we are found out, we scuffle, which is more vulgar still; we inspire nothing; unless now and. then a bad war or a disastrous speculation; we - live showily, noisily, meanly, gaudily. You have said, ‘On satt sencanailler.’ Well, your wife is not like us. You should be thankful.” ‘‘Allthe same,” said Zourofi, with a shrug of his shoulders, ‘<she is not amusing.” ‘‘ Oh, that is another affair. Even if she were, I do notbelieve you wculd go to your wife to be amused. Ithink you aresimply discontented with her because she is not somebody else’s wife, If she were fast and frivolous you would beangry at that.” ‘‘ She is certainly not fast or frivolous!” i ‘‘Perhaps, my friend—after all—it is only that she 1s not happy.” It was the one-little poison-tipped arrow that she could not help speeding against the man whose marriage had been an in- sult to a ‘‘friendship” of many years’ duration. ‘Tf she were not a fool she would be perfectly happy,” he an- swered, petulantly, and with a frown. | ‘Or if she understood compensations as we understand them,” gaid Madame de Sonnaz, lighting a cigarette. ‘* Perhaps she v ; \ 4 * eh (4 Vu Wap (@) aX of KS >i saf Awe ’ : wa at i ¥ iA : * Ps ‘ : ‘ ert ‘ waar ¥ Way ® 7 nts Pe ae x re 4 : : ie eel ; y . . P ray /F 7 % . » ¥ 4 ” Fie. , i »~ Al ~*~ i ¢vt if a | ~e *- : - NAN Pha. bee Se * . uaae!’ A _! is