She had not long to wait, for a perfect deluge of
affectionate people rolled down upon her. Many remembered her--oh,
quite well--when she was the beautiful Miss Curtis; and then her
husband--that dreadful Villiers--they hoped he was dead--squandering
her fortune as he had done--they had always been sorry for her, and
now she was rich--that lovely Pactolus--indeed, she deserved it all-
-she would marry, of course--oh, but indeed, she must. And so the
comedy went on, and all the actors flirted, and ogled, and nodded,
and bowed, till Madame Midas was quite sick of the falseness and
frivolity of the whole thing. She knew these people, with their
simpering and smiling, would visit her and eat her dinners and drink
her wines, and then go away and abuse her thoroughly. But then
Madame Midas never expected anything else, so she received them with
smiles, saw through all their little ways, and when she had amused
herself sufficiently with their antics, she let them go.
Vandeloup called on Madame Midas the day after she arrived, and Mrs
Villiers was delighted to see him. Having an object in view, of
course Gaston made himself as charming as possible, and assisted
Madame to arrange her house, told her about the people who called on
her, and made cynical remarks about them, all of which amused Madame
Midas mightily. She grew weary of the inane gabble and narrow
understandings of people, and it was quite a relief for her to turn
to Vandeloup, with his keen tongue and clever brains.
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