"It's astonishing how the feminine figure has deteriorated in these dreadful democratic days.

It's all fat and horribly common.

Not one of those women yonder shows the Florentine contour, with small bosom and slender, elegant neck.

Ah! that one yonder isn't so bad perhaps, the fair one with her hair coiled up, whom Monsignor Fornaro has just approached." For a few minutes indeed Monsignor Fornaro had been fluttering from beauty to beauty, with an amiable air of conquest.

He looked superb that evening with his lofty decorative figure, blooming cheeks, and victorious affability.