Letters of Two Brides

My mind was made up on the spot. It was unworthy of me, I determined,

to quarrel with society for not being impressed by my merits, and I

gave myself up to the simple pleasure of dancing, which I thoroughly

enjoyed. I heard a great deal of inept gossip about people of whom I

know nothing; but perhaps it is my ignorance on many subjects which

prevents me from appreciating it, as I saw that most men and women

took a lively pleasure in certain remarks, whether falling from their

own lips or those of others. Society bristles with enigmas which look

hard to solve. It is a perfect maze of intrigue. Yet I am fairly quick

of sight and hearing, and as to my wits, Mlle. de Maucombe does not

need to be told! I returned home tired with a pleasant sort of tiredness, and in all

innocence began describing my sensations to my mother, who was with

me. She checked me with the warning that I must never say such things

to any one but her.

"My dear child," she added, "it needs as much tact to know when to be

silent as when to speak."

This advice brought home to me the nature of the sensations which

ought to be concealed from every one, not excepting perhaps even a

mother. At a glance I measured the vast field of feminine duplicity. I

can assure you, sweetheart, that we, in our unabashed simplicity,

would pass for two very wide-awake little scandal-mongers. What

lessons may be conveyed in a finger on the lips, in a word, a look!

All in a moment I was seized with excessive shyness. What! may I never

again speak of the natural pleasure I feel in the exercise of dancing?

"How then," I said to myself, "about the deeper feelings?"

I went to bed sorrowful, and I still suffer from the shock produced by

this first collision of my frank, joyous nature with the harsh laws of

society. Already the highway hedges are flecked with my white wool!

Farewell, beloved.