ABSTRACT
I was in Paris, and I did as people of fashion in Paris were accustomed to do. I consoled myself for the infidelity of one mistress by devoting my attentions to another. The qualities of the Countess de B—— were exceedingly unlike those of the Marchioness; perhaps, led by a sentiment to which I was unconscious, I selected her for that very reason. The Marchioness I have compared to the sleek and glossy coated eel: for ever restless, never contented with the thing or the circumstances under which she was, you could never hold her to one certain mode of proceeding. The only way in which for her lover to become satisfied with her, was to persuade himself that her external demeanour was merely a guise put on, which belied her heart, and that, when she seemed most impatient, capricious, / and fantastical, her soul confessed none of these follies, but assumed them to veil the too great sensibility of her nature. The Countess, on the contrary, appeared to be wholly destitute of art. Though past the first season of youthful inexperience, she appeared to have acquired none of the lessons of prudery and factitious decorum. Her heart shone in her visage; the very tones of her voice were modulated to the expression of tenderness. Hers was ‘the sleepy eye, that spoke the melting soul’. a . Her cheek was full, her skin transparent; the least thought of pleasure or of passion suffused her countenance with a blush. The Countess had no atom of the restlessness of her rival; a sort of voluptuous indolence continually attended her; and the busy nothings of ordinary life seemed to be an insupportable burden to her. She appeared born only to feel; to reflect, to consider, to anticipate, to receive and concoct the elements of instruction, were offices in which she seemed incapable to exist. It was her habit, therefore, to resign herself wholly to her feelings, and to be in them undivided and entire. To judge from every exterior indication, it was 61impossible for a tenderer mistress to exist; she gave herself up to her lover, and treated him as if he were father, mother, fortune, reputation, and life to her, in one. She placed no restraint on herself, but appeared all anxiety, terror, apprehension, gratitude, enjoyment, as the occasions most obviously led to one or another of these emotions.
