Moths by Ouida — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

HAD Ae ony MOTHS. Her couch was close to the glass doors of the room, and they opened into one of the scroll-work balconies which embroidered the fantastic front of the Chalet Ludoff, The room was nomin- ally up-stairs, but literally it was scarcely eight feet above the ground without. It was in the full hot sunshine of early afternoon when the voice she dreamed of, said softly: ‘‘ Mademoiselle Herbert!” Vere roused herself with a start, and saw the arm of Correze leaning on the balcony and his eyes looking at her; he was stand- ing on the stone perron below. ““T came to bid you farewell,” he said, softly. ‘‘I go to Ger- many to-night. You are a captive, I know, soI dared to speak to you thus.” ‘+ You go away!” To the girl it seemed as if darkness fell over the sea and shore. *“ Ah, we princes of art are but slaves of the ringafterall. Yes, my engagements have been made many months ago: to Baden, to Vienna, to Moscow, to Petersburg; then Paris and London once more. It may be long ere we meet, if ever we do, and [f dare to call myself your friend, though you never saw my face until this morning.” ‘You have been so good to me,” murmured Vere, and then stopped, not knowing what ailed her in the sudden sense of sor- row, loss, and pain which came over her as she listened. “Oh, altro!’ laughed Correze, lifting himself a little higher, and jeaning more easily on the iron of the balcony. ‘‘I found yon a pair of wooden shoes, a cup of milk, and a cabbage-rose. Sorry things to offer toan enchanted princess who had missed her road! My dear, few men will not be willing to be as good to you as you will let them be. You areachild. You do not know your power. I wonder what teachers you willhave? I wish you could go untaught; but there is no hope of that.” Vere was silent. She did not understand what he meant. She understood only that he was going far away—this brilliant and beautiful stranger who had come to her with the morning sun. ‘‘ Mademoiselle Herbert,” continued Correze, ‘‘I shall sound like a preacher, and I am but a graceless singer; but try and keep ourself ‘<-2spotted from the world.’ Those are holy words, and am ncs a holy speaker; but try and ,.remember them, This world you will be launched in does no woman good. It is a world of moths. Half the moths are burning themselves in feverish frailty, the other half are corroding and consuming all that they touch. Do not become of either kind. You are made for something better than a moth. You will be tempted; you will be laughed at; you will be surrounded with the most insidi- ous sort of evil example, namely, that which does not look like evil one whit more than the belladonna berry looks like death. The women of your time are not, perhaps, the worst the world has seen, but they are certainly the most contemptible. They have dethroned grace; they have driven out honor; they have succeeded in making men ashamed of the sex of their mothers; aK Ea (Efe) , comicbooks