If on the one hand he did not know much more of the literature of bygone days or of French tradition than his youthful contemporaries, he had more taste and more lively interests.

And, like all Frenchmen, he loved Moliere, understood him, and felt him profoundly.
"It's delightful," he said.

"Now, come to me." She let her chemise slip downwards with a calm and beneficent grace.
But, because she wished to make herself desired, and because she loved comedy, she began Agnes' narrative: "J'etais sur le balcon a travailler au frais, Lorsque je vis passer sous les arbres d'aupres Un jeune homme bien fait qui, rencontrant ma vue...." He called her, and drew her to him.

She glided from his arms, and, advancing toward the mirror, she continued to recite and act before the glass.
"D'une humble reverence aussitot me salue." Bending her knee, at first slightly, then lower, then, with her left leg brought forward, and her right thrown, back, she curtsied deeply.
"Moi, pour ne point manquer a la civilite, Je fis la reverence aussi de mon cote." He called her more urgently.

But she dropped a second curtsy, the pauses of which she accentuated with amusing precision.