The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume 4Maupassant, Guy de
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The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume 4
Maupassant, Guy de
French fiction -- Translations into English; Short stories, French -- Translations into English
At eight o'clock his divinity made her appearance, still thickly veiled,
but on this occasion wearing a valuable sable cloak. As usual, Count F.
took her into the dark-room and locked the outer door; then he opened
that which led into his bedroom, and his two friends came in, each with a
candle in his hand.--The lady in the sable cloak cried out in terror when
Count F. pulled off her veil, but then it was his turn to be surprised,
for it was not the Princess Leonie who stood before him, but her pretty
lady's-maid, who, now she was discovered, confessed that love had driven
her to assume her mistress's part, in which she had succeeded perfectly,
on account of the similarity of their figure, eyes and hair. She had
found the Count's letter in the Princess's pocket-handkerchief when they
were at Karlsbad and had answered it. She had made him happy, and had
heightened the illusion which her figure gave rise to by borrowing the
Princess's dresses.
Of course the Count was made great fun of, and turned his back on Vienna
hastily that same evening, but the pretty lady's-maid also disappeared
soon after the catastrophe, and only by those means escaped from her
mistress's well-merited anger; for it turned out that that gallant little
individual had already played the part of her mistress more than once,
and had made all those hopeless adorers of the Princess, who had found
favor in her own eyes, happy in her stead.
Thus the enigma was solved which Princess Leonie seemed to have proposed
to the world.
A DEER PARK IN THE PROVINCES
It is not very long ago that an Hungarian Prince, who was in an Austrian
cavalry regiment, was quartered in a wealthy Austrian garrison town. The
ladies of the local aristocracy naturally did everything they could to
allure the new comer, who was young, good-looking, animated and amusing,
into their nets, and at last one of the ripe beauties, who was now
resting there on her amorous laurels, after innumerable victories on the
hot floors of Viennese society, succeeded in taking him in her toils, but
only for a short time, for she had very nearly reached that limit in age
where, on the man's side, love ceases and esteem begins. But she had more
sense than most women, and she recognized the fact in good time, and as
she did not wish to give up the principal character which she played in
society there so easily, she reflected as to what means she could employ
to bind him to her in another manner. It is well known that the notorious
Marchioness de Pompadour, who was one of the mistresses of Louis XV. of
France, when her own charms did not suffice to fetter that changeable
monarch, conceived the idea of securing the chief power in the State and
in society for herself, by having a pavilion in the deer park, which
belonged to her, and where Louis XV. was in the habit of hunting, fitted
up with every accommodation of a harem, where she brought beautiful women
and girls of all ranks of life to the arms of her royal lover.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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