Moths by Ouida — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

MOTHS. 1 hour in the fever of chemin de fer; when she learned that they were very greedy for their winnings to be paid, but never dreamt of being asked to pay their losses; when she saw these women with babies in their nurseries, making unblushing love to other women’s husbands, and saw every one looking on the pastime as a matter of course quite good-naturedly; when she saw one of these ladies take a flea from her person and cry, Qui m’aime Vavale, and a prince of semi-royal blood swallow the flea in a glass of water; when to these things, and a hundred others like them, the young student from the Northumbrian moors was the silent and amazed listener and spectator, she felt indeed lost in a strange and terrible world; and something that was very like disgust shone from her clear eyes and closed her proud mouth. Society as it was filled her with a very weariness of wonder, a cold and dreary disenchantment, like the track of gray mire that in the mountains is left by the descent of the glacier. But her mother was more terrible to her than all. At the thought of her mother, Vere, even in solitude, felt her cheek burn with an intolerable shame. When she came to know something of the meaning of those friendships that society condones—of - those jests which society whispers between a cup of tea and a cigar: ette--of those hints which are enjoyed like a bonbon, yet contain all the enormities that appalled Juvenal---then the heart of Vere grew sick, and she began slowly to realize what manner of woman this was that had given her birth. ‘* My dear, your pretty daughter seems to sit in “judgment on us all! Iam sadly afraid she finds us wanting,” said the great lady who had signalized herself with utilizing a flea. ‘‘Oh, she has a dreadful look, I know,” said Lady Dolly, dis- tractedly. ‘* But, you see, she has been always with that odious old woman. She has seen nothing. She is a baby.” The other smiled. ‘* ‘When she has been married a year, all that will change. She will leave it behind with her maiden sashes and shoes. But Iam not sure that she will marry quickly, lovely as she is. She frightens people, and, if you don’t mind my saying so, she is rude. The other night when we had that little bit of fun about the flea she rose and walked away, turned her back positively, aa asif she were a scandalized dowager. Now, you know, that doesn’t do nowadays. The age of saints is gone by——” ‘‘ Tf there ever were one,” said Lady Dolly, who occasionally forgot that she was very high church in her doctrines. ‘* Vere would make a beautiful St. Ursula,” said Lady Stoat, joining them. ‘‘ There is war as well as patience in her counte: nance; she will resist actively as well as endure passively.” ‘What a dreadful thing to say !” sighed Lady Dolly. The heroine of the flea erotic laughed at her. ‘‘ Marry her, my dear. Thatis what she wants.” She herself was only one-and-twenty, and had been married four years, had some little flaxen bundles in nurses’ arms that she seldom saw, was deeply in debt, had as many adorers as she ~ had pearls and diamonds, and was a very popular and admired _ ersonage. | | mn OT a | ae Rel GEREN PTR com chook : ts . %% ye } : rai