Moths by Ouida — page 158: what you’re looking at

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

154 MOTHS ‘*Collapsed wind-bags, I dare say. The richest soil alwa bears the rankest mushrooms. France is always bearing mus rooms. Itisapity. But what Il meant was that your Vere has not got the taint of it at all: I fancy she scarcely cares ait all about that famous diamond, unless it be for its historical associ- ations. Iam quite sure she doesn’t enjoy being stared at; and I think she very heartily dislikes having her beauty written about in newspapers,'as if she were amare of Lord Falmouth’s or a cow of Lady Piggot’s; she is not Second Empire, that’s all.” ‘Then you mean to say Iam vulgar !” said Lady Dolly, with some tartness. Lady Stoat smiled, a deprecating smile, that disarmed all suf- ian who without it might have resented her honeyed cruel- ies. ‘*My dear, I never say rude things; but, if you wish me to be sincere, [ confess I think everybody is a little vulgar now, except old women like me, who adhered to the Faubourg while you all were dancing and changing your dresses seven times a day iit Saint Cloud. ‘There is a sort of vulgarity in the air; it-is difficult to escape imbibing it; there is too. little reticence, there is too much tearing about; men are not well mannered, and women are too solicitous to please, and too indifferent how far they stoop in pleasing. It may be the fault of steam; it may be the fault of smoking; it may come from that flood of new people of whom ‘L’Etrangere’ is the scarcely exaggerated sample; but, whatever it comes from, there it is—a vulgarity that taints everything, courts and cabinets as well as society.. Your daugh- ter somehow or other has escaped it, and so you find her odd, and the world thinks her stiff. Sheis neither; but no dignified long descended point-lace,, you know, will ever let itself be twisted and whirled into a cascade and a fouwdllis like your Bre- tonned lace that is just the fashion of the hour and worth nothing. I admire your Vere very greatly; she always makes me think of those dear old stately hotels with their grand gardens in which I saw, in my girlhood, the women who, in theirs, had known France before 80. Those hotels and their gardens are gone, most of them, and there are stucco and gilt paint in their places. And there are people who think that a gain. lL am not one of them,” ‘‘My sweetest Adine,” said Vere’s mother, pettishly, ‘‘if you admire my child so much, why did you persuade her to marry Sergius Zourofir” | ‘‘To please you, dear,” said Lady Stoat, with a glance that cowed Lady Dolly. ‘‘I thought she would adorn the position; ' she does adorn it. ‘It is good to see a gentlewoman of the old type in a high place, especially when she is young. When we are older, they don't listen much; they throw against us the laudator tempori acti: they think we are disappointed or em- bittered. Itis good to see a youngs woman to whom men still _ have to bow, as they bow to guccus, and before whom they do - not dare to talk the langue verte. Sie ought to have a great deal of influence.” ‘‘Sbe has none—none whatever. She never will have any,” said Lady Dolly, with a sort of triumph, and added, with the eee ~ ; %. oe Eomicbooks . ° : : : e404 KAS t f j : f ' . 0 ey ee es. ' i i '] ‘ a ‘ 4 j 7! \ Pees hu ee : ,. i. : ' j ‘ ‘ . y tt tw sry c (Go)