Princess Napraxine by Ouida--Delphi Classics (Illustrated) by Ouida

Author:Ouida [OUIDA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Parts Edition 12 of 28 by Delphi Classics
Publisher: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
Published: 2017-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

‘“Tant” and “trop” are the spoilers of our existence,’ she replied. ‘I remember as a child I never cared for bonbons; I used to say that if they hung up where the church bells were, and one could not get them, one would care — —’

‘My intention was good,’ said the great man piteously; ‘you might have smiled on me for that.’

‘That would have been very commonplace, everybody is amiable in that kind of way; I am not amiable, they say, and yet I am never out of temper — which seems to me the first requisite for amiability.’

‘Serenity is unkind when it means indifference.’

‘But indifference is so comfortable to the indifferent!’ she had replied, and the reply admitted of no refutation.

Now, when the déjeuner, which had been the pretext and cover of the morning’s informal but pregnant discussion, was over, and she was about to go to her carriage, she had smiled with gentle condescension on the Baron, and asked him the tidings of Amyôt. Friederich Othmar, in his answers, had been incautiously and unusually enthusiastic in the hearing of a person who to all enthusiasm was merciless; the more merciless, because in a far-down and never-investigated corner of her own nature she was a little conscious that she also could have been enthusiastic — if it had been worth while.

She had laughed a little unkindly, and had made the remark about the wet violets; the Baron, slightly irritated and considerably in earnest, had replied, that to gather violets with your own wife was less exciting, but perhaps sweeter, and certainly wiser, than to purchase orchids for the wife of someone else.

‘A most moral opinion, turned with classic elegance, and quite indisputable,’ said Madame Napraxine, with much amusement. ‘And orchids are so short-lived! Do you think home-grown violets live longer? Dear Baron, I am so glad to see you so pleased, and so poetical; Napoleon’s desire for an heir made him quite brutal; your desire for your nephew’s heir makes you quite full of pretty sentiment. Pray go on, you interest me! it is as if one heard Bismarck playing a guitar!’

‘Like Napoleon, I dislike les amours stériles,’ replied Friederich Othmar, with a smile. ‘My nephew was in danger of letting his life drift away in a dream; I know no means of recalling a man to the practical happiness of existence so efficacious as a young girl’s beauty.’

‘You are very primitive in your ideas, dear Baron, for a person who has lived all his life in Paris,’ said the Princess Nadine, with her little air of fatigue and of irony. She knew very well what had been implied in his words, and she resented them.

‘Nature is primitive, Madame,’ said the Baron. ‘But after all, we do not improve on her, nor exclude her, do what we may.’

‘You think not?’ said Madame Napraxine, much amused. ‘Well, for my part, I have never been able to discover that Nature is very charming: if we attended to her, she would make

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