of artists in spite of
swathing linen and thick clothes, which mould themselves, inevitably,
upon the nude. Sincere, simple, and natural, Veronique set these
beauties of her form into relief by movements that were wholly free from
affectation. She brought out her "full and complete effect," if we may
borrow that strong term from legal phraseology. She had the plump arms
of the Auvergnat women, the red and dimpled hand of a barmaid, and her
strong but well-shaped feet were in keeping with the rest of her figure.

At times there seemed to pass within her a marvellous and delightful
phenomenon which promised to Love a woman concealed thus far from every
eye. This phenomenon was perhaps one cause of the admiration her
father and mother felt for her beauty, which they often declared to
be divine,--to the great astonishment of their neighbors. The first to
remark it were the priests of the cathedral and the worshippers with
her at the same altar. When a strong emotion took possession of
Veronique,--and the religious exaltation to which she yielded herself on
receiving the communion must be counted among the strongest emotions of
so pure and candid a young creature,--an inward light seemed to efface
for the moment all traces of the small-pox. The pure and radiant face of
her childhood reappeared in its pristine beauty. Though slightly veiled
by the thickened surface disease had laid there, it shone with the
mysterious brilliancy of a flower blooming beneath the water of the sea
when the sun is penetrating it. Veronique was changed for a few
moments; the Little Virgin reappeared and then disappeared again, like a
celestial vision. The pupils of her eyes, gifted with the power of great
expansion, widened until they covered the whole surface of the blue iris
except for a tiny circle. Thus the metamorphose of the eye, which became
as keen and vivid as that of an eagle, completed the extraordinary
change in the face. Was it the storm of restrained passions; was it some
power coming from the depths of the soul, which enlarged the pupils
in full daylight as they sometimes in other eyes enlarge by night,
darkening the azure of those celestial orbs?

However that may be, it was impossible to look indifferently at
Veronique as she returned to her seat from the altar where she had
united herself with God,--a moment when she appeared to all the parish
in her primitive splendor. At such moments her beauty eclipsed that
of the most beauti