United States or Bosnia and Herzegovina ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"My feet are cold," she added, going to the fire, where the golden ornaments of her turban made fireworks in the light of the Saint-Aurora wax-candles that were struggling vainly to light the vast salon. "He is very small fry, that young substitute," said Madame Minard, glancing at Mademoiselle Thuillier. "Small fry!" cried la Peyrade. "Ah, madame! how witty!"
The poor woman, startled, looked through a veil of tears first at her husband, and then at Brigitte; but her position in the family was so well known, and the homage paid by innocence to weakness had something so beautiful about it, that the emotion was general; the men all rose and bowed to Madame Thuillier. "Ah! Celeste, I would I had a kingdom to lay at your feet," murmured Felix Phellion.
At this moment Monsieur and Madame Thuillier returned home. Five days later, in the month of April, the ordinance which convoked the electors to appoint a member of the municipal council on the 20th of the same month was inserted in the "Moniteur," and placarded about Paris. For several weeks the ministry, called that of March 1st, had been in power. Brigitte was in a charming humor.
"Ha, ha!" said Thuillier, slyly, "so it is a little jealousy, is it, in our mind?" "Jealousy!" retorted la Peyrade. "I don't know if that's the right word, but certainly your sister whose mind is nothing above the ordinary, and to whom I am surprised that a man of your intellectual superiority allows a supremacy in your household which she uses and abuses "
"That's better than a kick on the shin-bone!" On hearing that witticism for the first time Theodose, to whom it was really new, laughed so heartily that the handsome Thuillier was tickled in his vanity as he had never been before. After that, Theodose greeted the same speech with a knowing little smile.
The old beau of the Empire, that handsome Thuillier, overwhelmed her with compliments, assuring her she was queen of the salon, but la Peyrade said infinitely more to the purpose by a look. Flavie had expected, Sunday after Sunday, a declaration, saying to herself at times: "He knows I am ruined and haven't a sou. Perhaps he is really pious."
"I did not mean that Madame de Godollo is actually in the furniture business; but, at the time when Mademoiselle Thuillier decided, by la Peyrade's advice, to manage the new house herself, that little fellow, who hasn't all the ascendancy over her mind he thinks he has, couldn't persuade her to move the family into the splendid apartment where they received us yesterday.
"Tiens! are you drawing up a parliamentary law?" "Yes," replied la Peyrade, "the law of the vanquished." Soon after this, the porter opened the door and introduced Madame Lambert, whom he had found at home, and who arrived looking rather frightened. "You are Madame Lambert?" asked Thuillier, magisterially. "Yes, monsieur," said the woman, in an anxious voice.
I know myself of another danger that threatens him to-morrow, and unless we can take some steps this evening to avert it, Celeste is positively lost to him." "How so?" said the husband and wife together. "Perhaps you are not aware," replied the countess, "that Thuillier and his sister have made certain promises to Monsieur de la Peyrade about Celeste?"
Now, Thuillier had spent about fifteen hundred francs himself on costs of publication, such, for instance, as copies sent in great profusion to the newspapers; but at the close of the third day seven copies only had been sold, and three of those on credit.
Word Of The Day