If one wishes to be epigrammatic, one must relinquish the hope of being either agreeable or veracious.

M.de Chauxville did not really intend to convey the idea that any of the persons assembled in the great guest chambers of the French Embassy that evening were anything but what they seemed.
He could not surely imagine that Lady Mealhead--the beautiful spouse of the seventh Earl Mealhead--was anything but what she seemed: namely, a great lady.

Of course, M.de Chauxville knew that Lady Mealhead had once been the darling of the music-halls, and that a thousand hearts had vociferously gone out to her from sixpenny and even threepenny galleries when she answered to the name of Tiny Smalltoes.

But then M.de Chauxville knew as well as you and I--Lady Mealhead no doubt had told him--that she was the daughter of a clergyman, and had chosen the stage in preference to the school-room as a means of supporting her aged mother.

Whether M.de Chauxville believed this or not, it is not for us to enquire.