15/23 La raison est suffisante.' And imagine French Guardsmen reading it! Mr.Beauchamp knew the virtue of punctiliousness in epithets and phrases of courtesy toward a formal people, and as the officers of the French Guard were gentlemen of birth, he would have them to perceive in him their equal at a glance. On the other hand, a bare excess of phrasing distorted him to a likeness of Mascarille playing Marquis. How to be English and think French! The business was as laborious as if he had started on the rough sea of the Channel to get at them in an open boat. She was young, that is, she was not in her middleage; and they were the dearest of friends; each had given the other proof of it. |