DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0125
THE COUNTESS DE GRAMMONT. 105
strength of bright eyes and some natural vivacity and imperti-
nence., set up for female wits ; in conversation they attempted to
dazzle by such sallies as would now be scarcely tolerated from the
most abandoned of their sex ; they were gay, airy, fluttering, fan-
tastical, and talkative; they dealt in bon mots and repartees;
they threw their glances right and left, d tort et a tr avers; and
piqued themselves upon taking hearts by a coup-de-main. Miss
Hamilton belonged to neither of these classes: though lively by
nature, she had felt, perhaps, the necessity of maintaining a
reserve of manner which should keep presumptuous fops at a dis-
tance. She wore her feminine dignity as an advanced guard,—her
wit as a body of reserve. She did not speak much, but what she
said was to the purpose,—-just what the occasion demanded, and
no more. Fibre a toute outrance whenever she was called upon
to stand on the defensive, she was less possessed with the idea of
her own merit than might have been supposed; and, far from
thinking her consequence increased by the number of her lovers,
she was singularly fastidious with regard to the qualifications of
those whom she admitted upon the list of aspirants.
De Grammont had hitherto received few repulses; but Cilieureux
sans etre aime” he began to be weary of pursuing conquests so
little worth. Miss Hamilton was something' new, something-
different from anything he had yet encountered in the form of
woman. He soon perceived that the stratagems he had hitherto
found all-prevailing,—flattery and billets doux, French fans and
gants de Martial*—would be entirely misplaced in his present
pursuit: he laid aside his usual methods of proceeding,'!' and, all
* Martial was a famous Parisian glove-maker of that time. “ Est-ce que
Martial fait les epigrammes aussi bien que les gants ?” asks Moliere’s Comtesse
d’Escarbagnas, in allusion to his Latin namesake. The English translator of the
Memoires de Grrammont has rendered Miss Hamilton’s “ deux on trois paires de
gants de Martial” into “ two or three pair of military gloves,”—a blunder only
equalled by the translation of “ Love’s last Shift” into “ La derniere chemise de
1’amour.”
f They were rather singular.—“ Des qu’uno femme vous plait,” says St. Evre-
strength of bright eyes and some natural vivacity and imperti-
nence., set up for female wits ; in conversation they attempted to
dazzle by such sallies as would now be scarcely tolerated from the
most abandoned of their sex ; they were gay, airy, fluttering, fan-
tastical, and talkative; they dealt in bon mots and repartees;
they threw their glances right and left, d tort et a tr avers; and
piqued themselves upon taking hearts by a coup-de-main. Miss
Hamilton belonged to neither of these classes: though lively by
nature, she had felt, perhaps, the necessity of maintaining a
reserve of manner which should keep presumptuous fops at a dis-
tance. She wore her feminine dignity as an advanced guard,—her
wit as a body of reserve. She did not speak much, but what she
said was to the purpose,—-just what the occasion demanded, and
no more. Fibre a toute outrance whenever she was called upon
to stand on the defensive, she was less possessed with the idea of
her own merit than might have been supposed; and, far from
thinking her consequence increased by the number of her lovers,
she was singularly fastidious with regard to the qualifications of
those whom she admitted upon the list of aspirants.
De Grammont had hitherto received few repulses; but Cilieureux
sans etre aime” he began to be weary of pursuing conquests so
little worth. Miss Hamilton was something' new, something-
different from anything he had yet encountered in the form of
woman. He soon perceived that the stratagems he had hitherto
found all-prevailing,—flattery and billets doux, French fans and
gants de Martial*—would be entirely misplaced in his present
pursuit: he laid aside his usual methods of proceeding,'!' and, all
* Martial was a famous Parisian glove-maker of that time. “ Est-ce que
Martial fait les epigrammes aussi bien que les gants ?” asks Moliere’s Comtesse
d’Escarbagnas, in allusion to his Latin namesake. The English translator of the
Memoires de Grrammont has rendered Miss Hamilton’s “ deux on trois paires de
gants de Martial” into “ two or three pair of military gloves,”—a blunder only
equalled by the translation of “ Love’s last Shift” into “ La derniere chemise de
1’amour.”
f They were rather singular.—“ Des qu’uno femme vous plait,” says St. Evre-