In the large and pleasant salon which extended across the width of the house, the Ratignolles entertained their friends once a fortnight with a
soiree musicale, sometimes diversified by card-playing.
Soon after her return from Moscow, on arriving at a
soiree where she had expected to meet him, and not finding him there, she realized distinctly from the rush of disappointment that she had been deceiving herself, and that this pursuit was not merely not distasteful to her, but that it made the whole interest of her life.
Having thanked Anna Pavlovna for her charming
soiree, the guests began to take their leave.
But he and Captain Porter of the 150th took home Jos to the hotel, who was in a very maudlin state, and had told his tiger-hunt story with great effect, both at the mess-table and at the
soiree, to Mrs.
Anyhow, the deputation of distinguished geologists and mineralogists from Paris and Berlin were there in the most magnificent and appropriate dress, for there are no men who like wearing their decorations so much as the men of science--as anybody knows who has ever been to a
soiree of the Royal Society.
Nine men out of ten would flee from a Royal Society
soiree in extremity of boredom; but Creighton was the tenth, and at times his soul yearned for the crowded rooms in easy London where silver-haired, bald- headed gentlemen who know nothing of the Army move among spectroscopic experiments, the lesser plants of the frozen tundras, electric flight-measuring machines, and apparatus for slicing into fractional millimetres the left eye of the female mosquito.
His first appearance was by a collection of stories in a long series of volumes entitled "Contes deux fois racontees." The titles of some of his more recent works (we quote from memory) are as follows: "Le Voyage Celeste a Chemin de Fer," 3 tom., 1838; "Le nouveau Pere Adam et la nouvelle Mere Eve," 2 tom., 1839; "Roderic; ou le Serpent a l'estomac," 2 tom., 1840; "Le Culte du Feu," a folio volume of ponderous research into the religion and ritual of the old Persian Ghebers, published in 1841; "La
Soiree du Chateau en Espagne," 1 tom., 8vo, 1842; and "L'Artiste du Beau; ou le Papillon Mecanique," 5 tom., 4to, 1843.
His place at table was laid in all the most distinguished houses in Alencon, and he was bidden to all
soirees. His talents as a card-player, a narrator, an amiable man of the highest breeding, were so well known and appreciated that parties would have seemed a failure if the dainty connoisseur was absent.
Henry: you are the life and soul of the Royal Society's
soirees; but really you're rather trying on more commonplace occasions.
1907
soirees; that celebrated demonstration-room was all too small for its exhibition.
Please join us at our First Annual Swings and Slides
Soiree benefiting the Climb Higher at Highland Fund.