Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

THE NOTARY'*
went into his study with M. Lescalle, she led the two ladies into
irden.
Madame Lesealle, like many of the Inhabitants (if provincial
towns, was n person who took immense pains to disfigure, by
affectation, excellent uatunil qualities. Born at L:i Ciotat, slu;
had left it only twice in her life, both times to spend a week at
Lyons with an aunt of hers. These northern journeys, as she
n. "i I ;o cull them, gave her ;:n assumed right to lay down the
law on points of fashion and taste. She was in the habit of
pronouncing in the most positive manner that some particular
stuff was out of fashion, that sueh a style of dress was anti-
quated, that such and such a color was in bad taste. No one
c i ] ventured to differ from her. Privileges founded on as-
sumption are singularly solid, and .Madame Lescalles had long
lu'cn the uncontcsted oracle of all the fine ladies of La Ciotat.
Her decisions were undisputed, even -by the wife of the mayor,
the first dignitary of the town, and were listened to with defer-
ence in the house of the Richers de Montlouis, the wealthiest
family in the neighborhood.
Firmly seated on her little throne, which had never been
threatened with a rival, the notary's wife had felt a little anxious
at the apparition on the scene of a Parisian lady of high birth
and large fortune. She apprehended danger from that quarter,
and like a skilful general, determined to go and judge with her
own eyes of the extent of the peril.
In case it proved imminent,
she- was not a woman likely to succumb without a struggle.
Heroic measures were already floating in her mind.
"
If ;t is
necessary," she thought, " I shall get my gowns from Paris."
When, after these desperate resolutions, she found herself !n
presence of a thin, pale, gentle, sickly-looking woman in a hlac
silk dress and a plain white lace cap on her head, Madame Les-
calle felt reassured, and still more by the fact that, two or three
silvery grey hairs were to be seen in the smooth black bands
which lined the Countess' white forehead. It was evident that
Madame de Vedelles did not care how she dressed, and would
never be a leader of fashion at La Ciotat.
In the meantime the good lady, who had no idea what was
]>a-M>ig in the mind of the notary's wife, was wondering at the
peculiarities of her dress and manner. In spite of a stumpy figure
and a too great embonpoint, Madame Lescalle had been and
'
ill considered pretty. ,IIer complexion was blooming, her
features regular, her countenance good humored, and if she had
1 with a little of that taste she was always talking
about, she would have been a pleasing looking person, but by dint
of absurd pretensions she often made herself ridiculous.
A great desire to dazzle the eyes of the inhabitanis of La Pinede
had led loan unfortunate display of magnificence in her dress on
that particular day. She wore a bright green Chaly gown, the
pattern of which represented branches of coral, immense sleeves
inwardly sustained by internal circles of whalebone, which gave
them no chance of collapsing. An imitation Cf.shmere shawl, a
pink bonnet surmounted by a bunch of flowers which would
have filled a jardini jre, completed this astonishing toilette.
From the first moment they met, these two ladies felt how lit-
tle there was or ever could be in common between them, even
with regard to that ordinary sort of intimacy which presupposes
a certain degree of similarity in habits and tone of mind. They
did not feel the least at their ease with each other during that
first interview, and had it not been for Madame Lescalle's invet-
erate custom of asking as many questions as possible.conversation
would have languished. But uncertain as she was of another opportunity
of seeing the Countess, ami anxious to collect from her
an ample harvest of details about Paris, she made the best of her
Innumerable were her questions concerning dress, of course,
and then theatres, parties, balls, and even the dishes then in
i. for Madame Lescalle, with all her finery, was also a
'IT
Poor Ma. lame d" Vedelles was very much behindhand in all
ts. Her delicate health and pious habits of life had
always kept her out of the way of worldly pleasures, and she was
id to acknowledge her Ignorance i
a-loum!;