[Villette by Charlotte Bronte]@TWC D-Link book
Villette

CHAPTER XX
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De Hamal was now a fixture beside her; Mrs.Cholmondeley sat near, and they and she were wholly absorbed in the discourse, mirth, and excitement, with which the crimson seats were as much astir as any plebeian part of the hall.

In the course of some apparently animated discussion, Ginevra once or twice lifted her hand and arm; a handsome bracelet gleamed upon the latter.

I saw that its gleam flickered in Dr.John's eye--quickening therein a derisive, ireful sparkle; he laughed:---- "I think," he said, "I will lay my turban on my wonted altar of offerings; there, at any rate, it would be certain to find favour: no grisette has a more facile faculty of acceptance.

Strange! for after all, I know she is a girl of family." "But you don't know her education, Dr.John," said I."Tossed about all her life from one foreign school to another, she may justly proffer the plea of ignorance in extenuation of most of her faults.

And then, from what she says, I believe her father and mother were brought up much as she has been brought up." "I always understood she had no fortune; and once I had pleasure in the thought," said he.
"She tells me," I answered, "that they are poor at home; she always speaks quite candidly on such points: you never find her lying, as these foreigners will often lie.


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