, which made her look still
more slender, with her long tapering limbs, her strong, slender body,
with its round throat, round neck, round and supple arms; and her
adorable neck and throat, of a milky whiteness, had the exquisite
softness and smoothness of white satin. For a long time, at the
ungraceful age between twelve and eighteen, she had looked awkwardly
tall, climbing trees like a boy. Then, from the ungainly hoyden had been
evolved this charming, delicate and lovely creature.

With absent gaze she sat looking at the walls of the chamber. Although
La Souleiade dated from the last century, it must have been refurnished
under the First Empire, for it was hung with an old-fashioned printed
calico, with a pattern representing busts of the Sphinx, and garlands
of oak leaves. Originally of a bright red, this calico had faded to a
pink--an undecided pink, inclining to orange. The curtains of the
two windows and of the bed were still in existence, but it had been
necessary to clean them, and this had made them still paler. And this
faded purple, this dawnlike tint, so delicately soft, was in truth
exquisite. As for the bed, covered with the same stuff, it had come down
from so remote an antiquity that it had been replaced by another bed
found in an adjoining room; another Empire bed, low and very broad,
of massive mahogany, ornamented with brasses, its four square pillars
adorned also with busts of the Sphinx, like those on the wall. The
rest of the furniture matched, however--a press, with whole doors and
pillars; a chest of drawers with a marble top, surrounded by a railing;
a tall and massive cheval-glass, a large lounge with straight feet, and
seats with straight, lyre-shaped backs. But a coverlet made of an old
Louis XV. silk skirt brightened the majestic bed, that occupied the
middle of the wall fronting the windows; a heap of cushions made the
lounge soft; and there were, besides, two _etageres_ and a table also
covered with old flowered silk, at the further end of the room.

Clotilde at last put on her stockings and slipped on a morning gown of
white _pique_, and thrusting the tips of her feet into her gray canvas
slippers, she ran into her dressing-room, a back room looking out on the
rear of the house. She had had it hung plainly with an _ecru_ drill with
blue stripes, and it contained only furniture of varnished pine--the
toilette table, two presses, and two chairs. It revealed, however, a
natural and delicat