the wrongs of time. The alterations of that beauty Plato would have
glorified as the coming of new graces. Her skin, so milk-white once,
had taken the warm and pearly tones which painters adore. Her broad
and finely modelled brow caught lovingly the light which played on its
polished surface. Her eyes, of a turquoise blue, shone with unequalled
sweetness; the soft lashes, and the slightly sunken temples inspired
the spectator with I know now what mute melancholy. The nose, which was
aquiline and thin, recalled the royal origin of the high-born woman.
The pure lips, finely cut, wore happy smiles, brought there by
loving-kindness inexhaustible. Her teeth were small and white; she had
gained of late a slight embonpoint, but her delicate hips and slender
waist were none the worse for it. The autumn of her beauty presented
a few perennial flowers of her springtide among the richer blooms of
summer. Her arms became more nobly rounded, her lustrous skin took a
finer grain; the outlines of her form gained plenitude. Lastly and best
of all, her open countenance, serene and slightly rosy, the purity
of her blue eyes, that a look too eager might have wounded, expressed
illimitable sympathy, the tenderness of angels.

At the other chimney-corner, in an arm-chair, the octogenarian sister,
like in all points save clothes to her brother, sat listening to the
reading of the newspaper and knitting stockings, a work for which sight
is needless. Both eyes had cataracts; but she obstinately refused to
submit to an operation, in spite of the entreaties of her sister-in-law.
The secret reason of that obstinacy was known to herself only; she
declared it was want of courage; but the truth was that she would not
let her brother spend twenty-five louis for her benefit. That sum would
have been so much the less for the good of the household.

These two old persons brought out in fine relief the beauty of the
baroness. Mademoiselle Zephirine, being deprived of sight, was not aware
of the changes which eighty years had wrought in her features. Her pale,
hollow face, to which the fixedness of the white and sightless eyes
gave almost the appearance of death, and three or four solitary and
projecting teeth made menacing, was framed by a little hood of brown
printed cotton, quilted like a petticoat, trimmed with a cotton ruche,
and tied beneath the chin by strings which were always a little rusty.
She wore a _cotillon_, or short skirt of coarse cloth,