Little Women - 912 Freedom Library

Little Womenglance of timid admiration at the poet whose linessuggested an ethereal being fed on ‘spirit, fire, and dew’,to behold him devouring his supper with an ardor whichflushed his intellectual countenance. Turning as from afallen idol, she made other discoveries which rapidlydispelled her romantic illusions. The great novelistvibrated between two decanters with the regularity of apendulum; the famous divine flirted openly with one ofthe Madame de Staels of the age, who looked daggers atanother Corinne, who was amiably satirizing her, afteroutmaneuvering her in efforts to absorb the profoundphilosopher, who imbibed tea Johnsonianly and appearedto slumber, the loquacity of the lady rendering speechimpossible. The scientific celebrities, forgetting theirmollusks and glacial periods, gossiped about art, whiledevoting themselves to oysters and ices with characteristicenergy; the young musician, who was charming the citylike a second Orpheus, talked horses; and the specimen ofthe British nobility present happened to be the mostordinary man of the party.Before the evening was half over, Jo felt so completelydisillusioned, that she sat down in a corner to recoverherself. Mr. Bhaer soon joined her, looking rather out ofhis element, and presently several of the philosophers, each617 of 861