The Young Countess, Or, Love and Jealousy (Volume 1)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1848 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. The letter of Madame de Rosenau to her protegee, was as follows: --My Dearest Caroline, I have long been intending to give you a sort of catalogue raisonnee of the set of friends that I hope to bring home with me, or, at any rate, to be followed by, soon after my return. But this good resolution of mine, though absolutely necessary for the purpose of giving you some little notion of the sort of party you are to prepare for, has been postponed from day to day, from the positive impossibility of finding a leisure hour in which to execute it. But it must be delayed no longer, my dear friend, or, instead of seeing you receive all these dearly beloveds in the appropriate and intelligent style that I hope for, and expect from you, dearest, I shall have to see you look at one after the other, as you might do at a set of monkeys, exhibited for your amusement at a fair. This would not do, my pretty Caroline, either for your interests or for mine; and therefore, in order to avoid it, give ear, or rather give eye, to all that I am now going to impart. Shall I give precedence to age, to rank, to beauty, or to talent? To age, of course, you will say, with your accustomed wisdom. Well, then, to age be it given. The oldest person I have invited is Geno Alberti; and, to save time, he and his wife may go together, for they look like twins. The next, if my chronology do not deceive me, is an English lady, of the name of Griffith, or it may be her brother, Mr. Hilbury. Having neither mother nor nurse to apply to, I must leave that question doubtful. I have invited them both, and I will tell you why I did so in the proper place. Next follows Mademoiselle Chambrey, and then, as I think, Prince Altenthon, or else the Princess Loffendoff; but this taking people i...