At the end of three months, having
had enough of it, she left the nest of her first love, with all she
possessed tied up in a cotton pocket handkerchief.
During the four years which followed, she led a precarious existence,
sometimes with little else to live upon but hope, which never wholly
abandons a young girl who knows she has pretty eyes. By turns she sunk
to the bottom, or rose to the surface of the stream in which she found
herself. Twice had fortune in new gloves come knocking at her door, but
she had not the sense to keep her. With the assistance of a strolling
player, she had just appeared on the stage of a small theatre, and
spoken her lines rather well, when Noel by chance met her, loved her,
and made her his mistress. Her advocate, as she called him, did not
displease her at first. After a few months, though, she could not bear
him. She detested him for his polite and polished manners, his manly
bearing, his distinguished air, his contempt, which he did not care
to hide, for all that is low and vulgar, and, above all, for his
unalterable patience, which nothing could tire. Her great complaint
against him was that he was not at all funny, and also, that he
absolutely declined to conduct her to those places where one can give
a free vent to one's spirits.
Pages:
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141