So it
was with Castanier.
He had begun by installing Aquiline is a modest fourth-floor dwelling,
the furniture being of the simplest kind. But when he saw the girl's
beauty and great qualities, when he had known inexpressible and
unlooked-for happiness with her, he began to dote upon her; and longed
to adorn his idol. Then Aquilina's toilette was so comically out of
keeping with her poor abode, that for both their sakes it was clearly
incumbent on him to move. The change swallowed up almost all
Castanier's savings, for he furnished his domestic paradise with all
the prodigality that is lavished on a kept mistress. A pretty woman
must have everything pretty about her; the unity of charm in the woman
and her surroundings singles her out from among her sex. This
sentiment of homogeneity indeed, though it has frequently escaped the
attention of observers, is instinctive in human nature; and the same
prompting leads elderly spinsters to surround themselves with dreary
relics of the past. But the lovely Piedmontese must have the newest
and latest fashions, and all that was daintiest and prettiest in
stuffs for hangings, in silks or jewelry, in fine china and other
brittle and fragile wares.
Pages:
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39