Volume I Part 12 (1/2)
”Just as you forget many other things, naughty girl; I must say you are anything but a model correspondent, Jenny, dear.”
”Well, I can't help it--I do dislike so to write!”
”You need not tell me that,” said Elinor, laughing. ”But I do remember all Madame de Bessieres' kind names very well. It was sometimes, mon lapin, mon lapin dore, mon chou, ma mere--they all sounded pleasantly to me, she spoke them so kindly. But sometimes to vex me, the other children--Master Harry among others--used to translate them; and, though rabbit, and golden rabbit, sounded very well in English, I did not care to be called cabbage.”
{”mon lapin” = my rabbit; ”mon chou” = my cabbage, a term of endearment; ”dore” = golden; ”ma mere” = my mother (French)}
”Did you like the young people you met in Paris, Jane?” asked Miss Wyllys.
”Oh, yes; the young men don't trouble you to entertain them, and the girls are very good-natured and pleasant.”
”Louisa seems to think the French girls are charming--so graceful, and pleasing, and modest; really accomplished, and well educated, too, she says--all that young women ought to be.”
”Yes, she says that she hopes her little girls will be as well educated as Madame de Bessieres' grand-daughters,” said Jane.
”Well, I hope my little namesake may answer her mother's expectations. She is a sweet little puss now, at any rate. Louisa was quite vexed yesterday, with Mrs. Van Horne, who asked her if the French girls were not all artful, and hypocritical. She answered her, that, on the contrary, those she saw the most frequently, were modest, ingenuous, and thoroughly well-principled in every way, besides being very accomplished.
She laid great stress on one point, the respect invariably paid by the young to the old, not only among the women, but the men, too.”
”Yes,” observed Miss Agnes; ”I remember to have heard the same remark from Madame de Bessieres; she observed, that after having been in many different countries, she could justly claim for her own, that in no other was so much deference paid to age as in France.”
”That agrees precisely with Louisa's opinion. She says it is a striking feature in French society, and appears thoroughly part of their character--not at all a.s.sumed for appearance sake.”
”It is a duty too little remembered in this country. It seems to be only in our very best families that the subject is properly attended to,” said Miss Agnes.
”Louisa likes the manners of the men for the same reason; she says that in society they are always respectful and obliging, whatever other agreeable or disagreeable qualities they may have.
She remarked, that she had never met with a rude Frenchman in society; but she had, repeatedly, met with rude Englishmen, in very good company.”
”What fault, pray, did Louisa find with the Englishmen you met, Jane?” asked Miss Agnes.
”There is a certain set, who say and do rude things.”
”I should not have thought that;” said Miss Wyllys.
”Oh, they have a way of making themselves disagreeable; now, a Frenchman never tries to be disagreeable.”
”One would think no one would try that,” said Elinor.
”The English do, though, I a.s.sure you; at least a certain set. I don't believe any other people do. I remember one evening, Harry was very angry with a certain Mr. Ellery, son of Lord Greystone, who used to come to our house quite often last spring. Do you remember him, Harry?” she added, as Hazlehurst again approached the table covered with French knicknacks {sic}, where the girls were sitting.
”Whom were you talking about?” he asked.
”Mr. Ellery;--do you remember his manner?”
”Ellery?--To be sure I do!--Insufferable c.o.xcomb!”
”Pray, what was his great offence?” asked Elinor, laughing.
Harry coloured violently. ”Oh, it was his intolerable English manner. I have known him stretch himself out nearly full length on a sofa, on which Jane or Louisa was sitting, and stare at them, with the most sickening expression, for half an hour at a time.”
”Half an hour, Harry! how can you talk so? Half a minute, you mean.”