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16 one? or, if she believed, it could never so interest her again.

One morning she accompanied Madame de Soissons to the fair, then the favourite lounge and amusement. The Comtesse bought every trifle that caught her eye, while Francesca looked on. Now it is not in human nature—at least in feminine nature—to see pretty things, yet not wish for them; and while her look lingered on many a graceful toy, the young Italian, conscious they were far beyond her slender finances, could not help contrasting her own necessity of debarring herself even from a slight purchase, with the lavish expenditure of her companion.

She had scarcely returned home an hour, and was giving Madame de Mercœur a full account of how Madame de Chatillion found out that it was so cold whenever l'Abbé Fouquet approached, and put on her black velvet mask, thus not allowing him to see her beautiful face even at a distance,—how the Due d'Anjou was inseparable from la belle cousine, who consulted his taste in all her purchases; when several packages were brought in, directed to Mademoiselle de Carrara. They were opened, and found to contain all kinds of toys, gloves, laces, ribands, &c., till the floor was strewed