by Henry James

Name: Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4
Author: by Henry James

Summary

“Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4”, published in 1874, is a work by by Henry James. It explores elements such as Longmore, Saint-Germain and de Mauves.

Quotes from Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (by Henry James)

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (1874)

“ Longmore stood gazing at these luminous particles; he could almost have fancied them a swarm of humming insects, the chorus of a refrain: "She has a great deal of esprit--she has a great deal of esprit." "Yes,--she has a great deal," he said mechanically, turning to the Count. M. de Mauves glanced at him sharply, as if to ask what the deuce he was talking about. "She has a great deal of intelligence," said Longmore quietly, "a great deal of beauty, a great many virtues." ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (1874)

“ Every nation has its own ideals of every kind, but when I remember some of OUR charming writers! I think at all events my wife never forgave me and that it was a real shock to her to find she had married a man who had very much the same taste in literature as in cookery. But you're a man of general culture, a man of the world," said M. de Mauves, turning to Longmore but looking hard at the seal of his watchguard. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (1874)

“ M. de Mauves busied himself for a moment in lighting another cigar, and when he had finished, with a return of his confidential smile, "I suspect you of thinking that I don't do my wife justice." he made answer. "Take care--take care, young man; that's a dangerous assumption. In general a man always does his wife justice. More than justice," the Count laughed--"that we keep for the wives of other men!"
Longmore afterwards remembered in favour of his friend's fine manner that he had not measured at this moment the dusky abyss over which it hovered. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (1874)

“ When my friends present themselves she's perfectly polite, but it cures them of coming again. She doesn't do herself justice, and I expect every day to hear two or three of them say to me, 'Your wife's jolie a croquer: what a pity she hasn't a little esprit.' You must have found out that she has really a great deal. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (1874)

“ She believed her husband to be a hero of rose-coloured romance, and he turns out to be not even a hero of very sad-coloured reality. For some time now she has been sounding her mistake, but I don't believe she has yet touched the bottom. She strikes me as a person who's begging off from full knowledge--who has patched up a peace with some painful truth and is trying a while the experiment of living with closed eyes. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (1874)

“ Any 'trouble'--if you mean any unhappiness--that one can sit comfortably talking about is an unhappiness with distinct limitations. If I were examined before a board of commissioners for testing the felicity of mankind I'm sure I should be pronounced a very fortunate woman. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (1874)

“ She liked him extremely, she felt in him the living force of something to which, when she made up her girlish mind that a needy nobleman was the ripest fruit of time, she had done too scant justice. They went through the little gate in the garden-wall and approached the house. On the terrace Madame Clairin was entertaining a friend--a little elderly gentleman with a white moustache and an order in his buttonhole. Madame de Mauves chose to pass round the house into the court ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (1874)

“ His friend Webster meanwhile lost no time in accusing him of the basest infidelity and in asking him what he found at suburban Saint-Germain to prefer to Van Eyck and Memling, Rubens and Rembrandt. A day or two after the receipt of this friend's letter he took a walk with Madame de Mauves in the forest. They sat down on a fallen log and she began to arrange into a bouquet the anemones and violets she had gathered. "I've a word here," he said at last, "from a friend whom I some time ago promised to join in Brussels. The time has come--it has passed. ”

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Source: Wikisource

by Henry James, Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (1874)

“ Longmore said nothing and M. de Mauves puffed his cigar reflectively and watched the smoke. "Madame de Mauves," he said at last, "is a rather singular person." And then while our young man shifted his position and wondered whether he was going to "explain" Madame de Mauves, "Being, as you are, her fellow countryman," this lady's husband pursued, "I don't mind speaking frankly. She's a little overstrained; the most charming woman in the world, as you see, but a little volontaire and morbid. ”

by Henry James

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Quotes from Madame de Mauves — Chapter 4 (by Henry James)

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