anding before him. "Look at me, and say if it isn't true."

Rogron looked at her from head to foot, and gently closed his eyes like
a cat whose head is being scratched.

"You are too beautiful," he said; "too dangerous."

"Why?"

Rogron looked at the fire and was silent. Just then Mademoiselle Habert
entered the room, followed by the colonel.

Celeste Habert, who had now become the common enemy, could only reckon
Sylvie on her side; nevertheless, everybody present showed her the more
civility and amiable attention because each was undermining her. Her
brother, though no longer able to be on the scene of action, was
well aware of what was going on, and as soon as he perceived that
his sister's hopes were killed he became an implacable and terrible
antagonist to the Rogrons.

Every one will immediately picture to themselves Mademoiselle Habert
when they know that if she had not kept an institution for young ladies
she would still have had the air of a school-mistress. School-mistresses
have a way of their own in putting on their caps. Just as old
Englishwomen have acquired a monopoly in turbans, school-mistresses have
a monopoly of these caps. Flowers nod above the frame-work, flowers that
are more than artificial; lying by in closets for years the cap is both
new and old, even on the day it is first worn. These spinsters make it
a point of honor to resemble the lay figures of a painter; they sit on
their hips, never on their chairs. When any one speaks to them they turn
their whole busts instead of simply turning their heads; and when their
gowns creak one is tempted to believe that the mechanism of these beings
is out of order. Mademoiselle Habert, an ideal of her species, had a
stern eye, a grim mouth, and beneath her wrinkled chin the strings of
her cap, always limp and faded, floated as she moved. Two moles, rather
large and brown, adorned that chin, and from them sprouted hairs which
she allowed to grow rampant like clematis. And finally, to complete her
portrait, she took snuff, and took it ungracefully.

The company went to work at their boston. Mademoiselle Habert sat
opposite to Sylvie, with the colonel at her side opposite to Madame
de Chargeboeuf. Bathilde was near her mother and Rogron. Sylvie placed
Pierrette between herself and the colonel; Rogron had set out a second
card-table, in case other company arrived. Two lamps were on the
chimney-piece between the candelabra and the clock, and the tables we