Hiram is too much occupied, however, to attend at all to the well-being
of his children, and his wife 'has no taste for anything of the kind.'
So, as I said, Belle grows up a spoiled child. She has never been
subject to control, and has not the slightest idea of self-restraint.
This is her second season in society. She is universally
admired--indeed, is quite 'the rage.' 'All the young men are dying for
her'--I quote from the observations about town; but few have the
hardihood to pay serious court to the daughter of Hiram Meeker.
Yet you perceive one man has ventured--successfully ventured.
Who is he? I do not wonder you inquire with some degree of curiosity. I
shall proceed to gratify it.
The large, dark, coarse-visaged, foreign-looking fellow, who 'lives but
to adore the angel of beauty and perfection' at his side, and with whom
the 'angel' is so blindly infatuated, is Signor Filippo Barbonne, a
second-rate performer of the last season's opera _troupe_!
It is a fact, reader, so it will be vain for me to deny it.
What, meantime, can I say by way of explanation? I hardly know. This
Signor Filippo, who is an impudent, audacious scamp, made the
acquaintance of Belle two years ago, when she was a schoolgirl. She was
amused at seeing him follow her persistently, and at last she permitted
him to accost her.
The cunning fellow conducted himself with the utmost deference, not to
say humility.
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