'You know him then ?' said Madame Cheron.

'I am not acquainted with him,' replied Cavigni.

'You don't know, then, the reason I have to call him impertinent;--he has had the presumption to admire my niece!' 'If every man deserves the title of impertinent, who admires ma'amselle St.Aubert,' replied Cavigni, 'I fear there are a great many impertinents, and I am willing to acknowledge myself one of the number.' 'O Signor!' said Madame Cheron, with an affected smile, 'I perceive you have learnt the art of complimenting, since you came into France.

But it is cruel to compliment children, since they mistake flattery for truth.' Cavigni turned away his face for a moment, and then said with a studied air, 'Whom then are we to compliment, madam?
for it would be absurd to compliment a woman of refined understanding; SHE is above all praise.' As he finished the sentence he gave Emily a sly look, and the smile, that had lurked in his eye, stole forth.

She perfectly understood it, and blushed for Madame Cheron, who replied, 'You are perfectly right, signor, no woman of understanding can endure compliment.' 'I have heard Signor Montoni say,' rejoined Cavigni, 'that he never knew but one woman who deserved it.' 'Well!' exclaimed Madame Cheron, with a short laugh, and a smile of unutterable complacency, 'and who could she be ?' 'O!' replied Cavigni, 'it is impossible to mistake her, for certainly there is not more than one woman in the world, who has both the merit to deserve compliment and the wit to refuse it.