'"
CHAPTER XXIV
THE POET FEELS THAT HE IS LOVED TOO WELL
An hour later, Modeste, charmingly equipped in a bottle-green
cassimere habit, a small hat with a green veil, buckskin gloves, and
velvet boots which met the lace frills of her drawers, and mounted on
an elegantly caparisoned little horse, was exhibiting to her father
and the Duc d'Herouville the beautiful present she had just received;
she was evidently delighted with an attention of a kind that
particularly flatters women.
"Did it come from you, Monsieur le duc?" she said, holding the
sparkling handle toward him. "There was a card with it, saying, 'Guess
if you can,' and some asterisks. Francoise and Dumay credit Butscha
with this charming surprise; but my dear Butscha is not rich enough to
buy such rubies. And as for papa (to whom I said, as I remember, on
Sunday evening, that I had no whip), he sent to Rouen for this one,"
--pointing to a whip in her father's hand, with a top like a cone of
turquoise, a fashion then in vogue which has since become vulgar.
"I would give ten years of my old age, mademoiselle, to have the right
to offer you that beautiful jewel," said the duke, courteously.
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