She was thinking of her whole history, pitying herself profoundly, coming to the conclusion, after true human fashion, that she was the worst-used person on earth, and that no one but herself knew what disappointed ambitions were; she was thinking of all this, and looking profoundly miserable and martyr-like, when some one called her by her name.

She looked round and saw one of the English ladies belonging to the Kurhaus; Bernardine had noticed her the previous night.

She seemed in capital spirits, and had three or four admirers waiting on her very words.
She was a tall, handsome woman, dressed in a superb fur-trimmed cloak, a woman of splendid bearing and address.

Bernardine looked a contemptible little piece of humanity beside her.

Some such impression conveyed itself to the two men who were walking with Mrs.Reffold.
They looked at the one woman, and then at the other, and smiled at each other, as men do smile on such occasions.
"I am going to speak to this little thing," Mrs.Reffold had said to her two companions before they came near Bernardine.