10/20 Madame Karpathy pales before her. Hers is not the beauty which can interest men of genius, she is too sensitive." "Nay, nay; I will not have you depreciate her in order to cry up my wife. On the contrary, I admit that Madame Karpathy is a very beautiful woman; indeed to some person's tastes, she might appear the ideal of loveliness." "Yes, true; poor Abellino, for instance, at one time, would scarce allow that a more beautiful woman had been born into the world since Helen of Troy or Ninon d'Enclos. He was quite mad about her; ruined himself, in fact, because of her. He spent sixty thousand florins upon her." "What do you mean by that ?" inquired Rudolf, much offended. |