Tales of Fashionable Life,: V. 5
Maria Edgeworth
Paperback
(University of Michigan Library, April 27, 2009)
Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1812. Excerpt: ... was permitted to cross the line of demarcation, madame de Coulanges began to . study. Silence ensued -- for novelty always produces silence in the first instant of surprise. -- An English gentleman wrote on the back of a letter an offer to his neighbour of a wager, that the silence would be first broken by the French countess, and that it could not last above two minutes. The wager was accepted, and watches were produced. Before the two minutes had expired, the pinch of snuff dropped from the countess's fingers, and, clasping her hands together, she exclaimed -- " Ah! ciel!" The surrounding gentlemen, who were full of their wager, and who had heard from the lady, during the course of the evening, at least a dozen exclamations of nearly equal vehemence, about the merest trifles, were more amused than alarmed at this instant: but Emilie, who knew her mother's countenance, and who saw the sudden change in it, pressed through the circle, and just caught her mother in her arms, as she fainted. Mrs. Somers, much alarmed, hastened to her assistance. The countess was carried out of the room, and every hody was full of pity and of curiosity. -- When madame de Coulanges recovered from her fainting fit, she was seized with one of her nervous attacks; so that no explanation could be obtained. Emilie and Mrs. Somers looked over the French paper, but could not find any paragraph unusually alarming. At length, more composed, the countess apologized for the disturbance which she had occasioned ; thanked Mrs. Somers repeatedly for her kindness; but spoke in a hurried manner, as if she did not well know what she said. She concluded by declaring, that she was subject to these nervous attacks, that she should be quite well the next morning, and that she did not wish that any one should sit up with her ...