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wear, for you are the only being I care to please?' said I.
"'None.'
"'Oh! but'
"'You'll feel shy, to be seen naked?'
"'Of course.'
"'Well, then, a tight-fitting cycling suit; it shews off the figure best.'
"'Very well; and you?'
"'I'll always dress exactly as you do.'
"On the evening in question we drove to the painter's studio, the outside of which was, if not quite dark, at least very dimly lighted. Teleny tapped three times, and after a little while Briancourt himself came to open.
"Whatever faults the general's son had, his manners were those of the French nobility, therefore perfect; his stately gait might even have graced the court of the grand Monarque; his politeness was unrivalled—in fact, he possessed all those 'small, sweet courtesies of life,' which, as Sterne says, 'beget inclinations to love at first sight.' He was about to usher us in, when Teleny stopped him.
