Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...to the wife of his dear Frederic-Ossian Pinggleton." "How exquisite that must have been! " minced the Countess Fergus. "You cannot imagine," answered Kimberly, whose look and gestures, and even the orchid that adorned the button-hole of his coat, expressed the most ardent ecstasy. And he continued: "Fancy, my dear friends, in a large hall, whose blue walls, though scarcely blue, are decorated with white peacocks and gold peacocks, --fancy a table of jade, inconceivably and delightfully oval. On the table some cups, in which mauve and yellow bonbons harmonized, and in the centre a basin of pink crystal, filled with kanaka preserves... and nothing more. Draped in long white robes, we slowly passed in turn before the table, and we took, upon the points of our golden knives, a little of these mysterious preserves, which then we carried to our lips... and nothing more." "Oh! I find that moving," sighed the countess, "so moving!" "You cannot imagine. But the most moving thing--a thing that really transformed this emotion into a painful laceration of our souls--was when Frederic-Ossian Pinggleton sang the poem of the betrothal of his wife and his friend. I know nothing more tragically, more superhumanly beautiful." "Oh! I beg of you," implored the Countess Fergus, " repeat this prodigious poem for our benefit, Kimberly." "The poem, alas! I cannot. I can give you only its essence." "That's it, that's it! The essence." In spite of his morals, in which they cut no figure, Kimberly filled women with mad enthusiasm, for his specialty was subtle stories of transgression, and of extraordinary sensations. Suddenly a thrill ran round the table, and the...