Activity

In his turn her husband spoke of his affairs, which he enjoyed revealing at dinner, this evening’s palaver being devoted to the chamber’s discussion of some newly proposed regulations against the adulteration of food.

apparently quite as comfortable with badinage as with mourning

Recognizing this, he invariably suffered an involuntary twinge of vainglory, the almost haughty yet well-concealed manners of a parvenu treated as an equal by princes and princesses

The artist had always been disposed to raillery, a French preference for mingling ironic touches with the most serious sentiments.

He was in fine fettle, he told me.