There, Madame Cheron having surveyed
him with high displeasure, said to some person who sat next to her,
'Pray, who IS that young man?' 'It is the Chevalier Valancourt,' was
the answer. 'Yes, I am not ignorant of his name, but who is this
Chevalier Valancourt that thus intrudes himself at this table?' The
attention of the person, who whom she spoke, was called off before
she received a second reply. The table, at which they sat, was very
long, and, Valancourt being seated, with his partner, near the
bottom, and Emily near the top, the distance between them may account
for his not immediately perceiving her. She avoided looking to that
end of the table, but whenever her eyes happened to glance towards
it, she observed him conversing with his beautiful companion, and the
observation did not contribute to restore her peace, any more than
the accounts she heard of the fortune and accomplishments of this
same lady.
Madame Cheron, to whom these remarks were sometimes addressed,
because they supported topics for trivial conversation, seemed
indefatigable in her attempts to depreciate Valancourt, towards whom
she felt all the petty resentment of a narrow pride.
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