



Produced by David Widger






"LE MONSIEUR DE LA PETITE DAME"

By Frances Hodgson Burnett

Copyright, 1877


It was Madame who first entered the box, and Madame was bright with
youthful bloom, bright with jewels, and, moreover, a beauty. She was
a little creature, with childishly large eyes, a low, white forehead,
reddish-brown hair, and Greek nose and mouth.

"Clearly," remarked the old lady in the box opposite, "not a
Frenchwoman. Her youth is too girlish, and she has too petulant an air
of indifference."

This old lady in the box opposite was that venerable and somewhat severe
aristocrat, Madame de Castro, and having gazed for a moment or so a
little disapprovingly at the new arrival, she turned her glasses to the
young beauty's companion and uttered an exclamation.

It was at Monsieur she was looking now. Monsieur had followed his wife
closely, bearing her fan and bouquet and wrap, and had silently seated
him self a little behind her and in the shadow.

"_Ciel!_" cried Madame 