[The Idler in France by Marguerite Gardiner]@TWC D-Link book
The Idler in France

CHAPTER VI
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This attention is net evinced by any flattery, except the most delicate--a profound silence when these belles of other days recount anecdotes of their own times, or comment on the occurrences of ours, or by an alacrity to perform the little services of picking up a fallen _mouchoir de poche, bouquet_, or fan, placing a shawl, or handing to a carriage.
If flirtations exist at Paris, they certainly are not exhibited in public; and those between whom they are supposed to be established observe a ceremonious decorum towards each other, well calculated to throw discredit on the supposition.

This appearance of reserve may be termed hypocrisy; nevertheless, even the semblance of propriety is advantageous to the interests of society; and the entire freedom from those marked attentions, engrossing conversations, and from that familiarity of manner often permitted in England, without even a thought of evil on the part of the women who permit these indiscretions, leaves to Parisian circles an air of greater dignity and decorum, although I am not disposed to admit that the persons who compose them really possess more dignity or decorum than my compatriots.
Count Charles de Mornay was presented to me to-day.

Having heard of him only as-- "The glass of fashion and the mould of form, The observed of all observers," I was agreeably surprised to find him one of the most witty, well-informed, and agreeable young men I have ever seen.

Gay without levity, well-read without pedantry, and good-looking without vanity.

Of how few young men of fashion could this be said! But I am persuaded that Count Charles de Mornay is made to be something better than a mere man of fashion.
Spent all the morning in the Hotel Ney, superintending the placing of the furniture.


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