Paula Monti; or, The Hôtel Lambert

The house in which M. de Brévannes occupied the first floor was situated in the Rue Saint Florentin. Utterly indifferent to the enjoyments or little comforts of a well-arranged...

"An orphan almost as soon as I was born," said the prince, "I was brought up by an old servant of my family. We dwelt in a retired village, where we lived in complete solitude....

Eight days had elapsed since the eventful meeting at the Comédie Française had revealed to M. de Brévannes that Paula Monti and the Princess de Hansfeld were one and the same pe...

He had seen Bertha alight from a carriage with De Brévannes,--Bertha, to whom he had, as he believed, said adieu for ever at their last interview at Pierre Raimond's.

The engraver and his daughter were deeply affected by the recital of M. de Hansfeld. The pity of Bertha was excited by the painful situation of a man compelled like Arnold to st...

"In the first place," said M. de Brévannes, endeavouring to slip a purse of gold into the hand of the mulatto, "take this, my good girl, for your own trouble."

"You may remember when, two years since, before my marriage, I left you at Venice to go to Florence with my aunt Vasari, and Gianetta our waiting-maid. You had been an invalid f...

De Brévannes did not for a moment consider how humiliating and odious was the part he was preparing for his wife: no consideration, no scruple, ever prevented this man from goin...

Madame de Hansfeld was in a dire perplexity. Her husband had insisted that she should set out next day for Germany, and it was therefore absolutely necessary for her to renounce...

An immense chamber, occupying the whole of one wing in the Hôtel Lambert, formed the entire dwelling-place of Arnold de Glustein, Prince of Hansfeld, the mysterious personage, c...

Fortunately Bertha's attention was occupied, else the marked alteration in her husband's features could not have escaped her. In spite of the iron temper of his disposition, M....

"I mean that I will kill myself,--I mean that the worst passions are contending within me,--I mean that I do not even recognise myself,--I mean that to my love for you I will sa...

"Upon your arrival at Paris, madame," said M. de Morville to Madame de Hansfeld, "before occupying the spacious Hôtel Lambert in the Isle St. Louis, you resided for some time in...

M. de Brévannes' father was named Joseph Burdin: born at Lyons, he had come to seek his fortune at Paris under the Directory. By his management, perseverance, and fitness for bu...

"Listen to me attentively. The conversation I am about to have with you will be the last we shall ever have on the subject of--you know what. You said to me some days since,--'a...

But little accustomed to her husband's attentions, Bertha was doubly surprised at receiving this gift of flowers, coming as it did after the scene of the preceding night, in whi...

Madame de Hansfeld felt some hesitation as to the manner in which she should commence the conversation, with a view to arriving at the truth of what she desired to know: by expr...

In 1837 the Opera-ball in Paris was not as yet entirely invaded by that mob of wild and crazed dancers, _chicards_[1] and _chicandards_ (as they style themselves), who, in the p...

The immense and ancient Hôtel Lambert, occupied by the Prince and Princess de Hansfield, was situated in the Rue Saint Louis en l'Ile; and its garden-walls formed the boundary o...

A tolerably large party of idlers congregated around the large chest on which was seated, as on a throne, the domino of whom we have spoken, listened eagerly to the strange vers...

"He will then pursue me every where. I never experienced such violent emotion: to be compelled to conceal all from the penetrating eyes of the world--from the indifferent glance...

Bertha de Brévannes usually passed every Sunday and Thursday morning with her father, Pierre Raimond, who still dwelt in the Isle Saint Louis, Rue Poultier, near to the Hôtel La...

A few days after the meeting we have recorded between Iris and M. de Brévannes, just as the hour of four o'clock sounded forth from the church of Saint Louis, a fog, rendered mo...

The perusal of the black book--this mysterious confidant of the most intimate thoughts of Paula--had given Bertha's husband almost hopes: the secrets he believed he had surprise...

Bertha had her hair plainly, but most becomingly arranged, and wore a gown of black crape. Her beautiful chestnut locks, her delicate and transparent skin, her ivory neck and sh...

A good fire blazed on the hearth, whilst without the snow was falling and the wind was bitterly cold. Pierre Raimond was seated on one side of the fireplace, and Arnold on the o...

M. de Morville, overcome by fresh melancholy, had not quitted his mother, who had again relapsed, and was suffering very acutely. He recollected, with a mixture of joy and bitte...

The prince's countenance was cold and disdainful. It would have been scarcely credited, that his mild features, melancholy, and so perfectly juvenile in expression, could have l...

When Iris proposed to Madame de Hansfeld to reply for her to M. de Brévannes on the subject of the interview which was to take place in the Jardin des Plantes, she not only prev...

"Now, then, I may freely indulge my joy that I still behold you, after your being so nearly torn from me;--dear, dear father, the very idea of losing you seems too horrible for...

"You have often told me that you espoused the Prince de Hansfeld with regret, and that your principal motive for bestowing your hand on him was to secure a provision for your au...

"No, no, I meant to say that the stylish people of the present day do riot write plays. He had nothing to do but follow their example, and keep himself quiet."

Two days after the last interview between Madame de Hansfeld and De Morville at the Opera ball, Iris had again taken, as she promised, the _Black Book_ to De Brévannes, who read...

M. de Brévannes's estate, situated in Lorraine, near Longeville, at some leagues from Bar-le-Duc, was a comfortable residence. A nice park, some excellent preserves, magnificent...

It would require the pencil of some great artist to depict the firmness, the decision of that queenly visage, as pale and as stern as a statue of antiquity--to describe that loo...

Madame de Brévannes had frequently met M. de Hansfeld, under the name of Arnold Schneider, at Pierre Raimond's. He had saved the old engraver's life, and nothing could be more n...

Madame de Hansfeld, continuing to write to M. de Morville under an assumed name, had received several replies. One morning (some days after M. de Hansfeld had saved the life of...

She was dressed with equal taste and simplicity. The only innovation which she had allowed herself consisted in a very high tortoiseshell comb, _à l'Espagnole_, which confined a...

The stern countenance of Pierre Raimond, which, until then, had relaxed into an expression of gentleness and kindness, suddenly assumed a look of proud energy. Drawing up his ta...

On the walls were a few engravings from the _burin_ of her father, some water-colour sketches by herself, her books, and her piano. A good fire was blazing in the hearth, and it...

Wholly absorbed by the surprise and terror awakened by the accusations of her husband, Madame de Hansfeld, during the late conversation between herself and the prince, had thoug...

"Why, I think Gercourt a most excellent fellow, and very amiable and nice before he was seized with the mania for writing, but now he has such a mysterious, preoccupied air----"

Iris, concealed in the path, had followed Bertha and Arnold from the beginning of their conversation until they entered the châlet. The thick clumps of box and holly concealed t...

This love was in the breast of Paula a singular mixture of noble and exalted sentiments and gloomy, sinister ideas. She would have thought it a degradation of the man she loved...

Madame de Hansfeld returned extremely satisfied with her interview with De Brévannes. When she reflected on the proposition he had made of presenting Bertha to her, Paula experi...

It remains for us to explain the arrival of De Morville at the Château de Brévannes, and his presence, as well as that of Paula, in the châlet in which Bertha and Arnold had bee...

The praises bestowed on his countenance were not exaggerated; his features, which were perfect as ideal purity can imagine, almost realised the divine type of the Antinous, only...

Velvet hangings supplied the place of doors, and Paula heard her husband's voice as he inquired of the valet-de-chambre, who was waiting at the extremity of the gallery, if the...

The Comédie Française had announced for the present evening the first performance of "_The Seducer_," a five-act comedy in verse. This piece was the first literary effort of the...