Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/279

 Rose Thè and Boulotte, and whereas in society he could escape from them, he could in nowise escape from her.

If it had been a question of marriage for her cousin, indeed, Madame Mila would have opposed it tooth and nail; she had a feeling, a very accurate one, that Della Rocca did not approve of herself, and that he would certainly never allow his wife, if he had one, to be very intimate with her. But Madame Mila knew what other people did not; that there could be no question of such a marriage for her cousin; and so she smiled on Della Rocca, and was always engaging him to dinner; because Lady Hilda, with her lover about her, like any one else, would be so much more humanized and natural, and would sympathise so much better with other people.

That kind of virtue of Hilda's—if it were virtue—was such an odd, chilly, unpleasant thing, she thought; to live in that way, with hundreds of men seeking her, and cold alike to them all, was something so very unnatural; it was almost as bad as being one of those queer women who wouldn't tie their skirts back, or wear high heels,