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48
MARIA FELICIA

lights. She is decidedly an enemy to all the customary rules which keep a girl within the narrow limits of home and family duties. The whole world is too small and narrow for her; her philosophy soars as high as heaven and again descends and delves into the earth; nothing is too high for her to reach, nothing too deep to penetrate. Lately, to my horror, she has been revolting against the existing order of things to which every man willingly submits, knowing that it is vain to struggle against the current. But, unaided, she swims against it carelessly and bravely. Of all the ladies of her rank she is the only one that does not wear hooped skirts, and she would not for any sum of money have her hair powdered and stylishly dressed.”

The Emperor became thoughtful; it seemed to him that he had seen the blue eyes shaded by black locks, that the form lightly leaning against the pillar was marked by attractive gracefulness, that she looked strikingly different from the other ladies, who resembled walking bells. But noticing that the Count