Version – Le portrait de Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, 1891 « Late as usual, Harry, » cried his aunt, shaking her head at him. He invented a facile excuse, and having taken the vacant Seat next to her, looked round to see who was there. Dorian bowed to him shyly from the end of the table, a flush of pleasure stealing into his cheek.
Opposite was the Duchess of Harley; a lady of admirable good nature and good temper, much Iiked by everyone who knew her, and of those ample architectural proportions that in women who are not Duchess ar rs contemporary histori s Next to her sat, on h member of Parliame on, a Radical er in public life, and in private life followed the best cooks, dining With the Tories, and thinking With the Liberals, in accordance With a Wise and well known rule.
The post on her left was occupied by Mr Erskine of Treadley, an Old gentleman of considerable charm and culture, who had fallen, however, into bad habits of silence, having, as he explained once to Lady Agatha, said everything that he had to say before he was thirty. His own neighbour was Mrs Vandeleur, one of his aunt’s Oldest friends, a perfect saint amongst women, but so dreadfully dowdy, that she Swipe to vlew next page she reminded one of a badly bound hymn-book.
Fortunately for him she had on the other side Lord Faudel, a most intelligent middle-aged mediocrity, as bald as a Ministerial statement in the House of Commons, With whom she was conversing in that intensely earnest manner, which is the one unpardonable error, as he remarked once himself, that all really good people fall into, nd from which none of them ever quite escape.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, 1891 « En retard comme toujours, Harry, » s’exclama sa tante, secouant la tête dans sa direction. Il inventa un prétexte passe-partout, et une fois qu’il eut pris possession de la place vacante à côté d’elle, il fit un tour d’horizon pour voir qui était présent. Depuis le bout de la table, Dorian s’inclina timidement vers lui, tandis que le plaisir lui faisait monter une rougeur indiscrète aux joues.
Face à lui, se trouvait la duchesse de Harley, une femme d’une nature admirable et d’un tempérament agréable, très appréciée par ses contemporains, et dont les amples proportions archltecturales, lorsqu’elles se retrouvaient chez des femmes qui n’étaient pas des duchesses, étaient décrites par les historiens contemporains comme de l’embonpoint. A côté d’elle, était assis à sa droite Sir Thomas Burdon, un député radical, qui allait dans le sillage de son leader en public, et en privé suivait les meilleu
