Chapter 21: La Belle Vernon

⁠​​​‌​​​​‌​​​​​​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​⁠The suite of apartments at the de Hauteville mansion in which the family received, were a scene of almost unrivalled splendour. The host, Monsieur Henri Eau Clair de Hauteville, as he stood beside Madame, receiving and welcoming their guests, being a very small and very pale, quiet-mannered man, was almost lost beside the large, handsome woman and merely bowed like a Chinese Mandarin, looking like