Improvisatrix

She understood, well, the rapid art of light conversation, which does not dogmatically insist upon any thin: as well as that pleasing address which gives a consideration to each of the company in turn, though she often indulged in that kind of talent which rendered her a celebrated improvisatrix.

The point of it all is not so much the story as the reception the little improvisatrix herself received, which was not unlike that accorded Mme. de Staël’s Corinne as she held forth before the populace in Rome: “And how the audience was enthralled! It would be a pleasing triumph for a story-teller of mature years to see such eyes, such lips, to hear such exclamations of delight or horror as this inchoate Small Person was inspired by” (223).