Page:Des Grieux, The Prelude to Teleny.djvu/15

 to patch it up—as she did her own face:

"Pour réparer des ans l'irréparable outrage."

The space beside this house, surrounded by low crumbly wall with an old wooden gate, had once been intended for building purposes. It belonged to the owners of the mansion, but this town of bygone greatness has been on its wane for ages so that it is now too wast for its ever-decreasing number of inhabitants.

There are spots where nature, having for a time been over-fruitful, remains sterile for centuries; there are cities which, after a short period of splendour, profond a languid life for ages; there are men who, after a day of youtful [sic] promise, drag on for years a dull effete life, dreaming of the past. So it was with this town.

Meanwhile this plot of ground has been used as a kind of common, and, at certain times of the year, it is crowded with canvas booths and penny shows, cheap theatres, and