No
candor, no tolerance, no allowance for human weakness, blunted the
scalpel in their dexterous hands.
Oh, Gossip! delight of ordinary souls, and more delightful still when you
furnish food for detraction!
To Fanny, in particular, it was exciting, ravishing, and the time flew by
so unheeded that presently there came a sharp knock and an impatient
voice cried, "Chatter! chatter! chatter! How long are we to be kept
waiting for dinner, all of us?"
CHAPTER VI.
AT the very commencement of the confabulation, so barbarously interrupted
before it had lasted two hours and a half, the Misogyn rang the bell, and
asked for Rosa, Zoe's maid.
She came, and he ordered her to have up a basket of wood, and light a
roaring fire in her mistress's room, and put out garments to air. He also
inquired the number of Zoe's bedroom. The girl said it was "No. 74."
The Misogyn waited half an hour, and then visited "No. 74." He found the
fire burned down to one log, and some things airing at the fire, as
domestics air their employers' things, but not their own, you may be
sure. There was a chemise carefully folded into the smallest possible
compass, and doubled over a horse at a good distance from the cold fire.
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