ard so black."

"It is because I am so pale--I am frozen. Jean forgot to look after my
fire at all, and it went out. Are you ready?"

My aunt smiled in turn as she took up her fan.

CHAPTER VIII. MY AUNT AS VENUS

Since that day when I kissed Madame de B. right on the centre of the
neck, as she held out her forehead to me, there has crept into our
intercourse an indescribable, coquettish coolness, which is nevertheless
by no means unpleasant. The matter of the kiss has never been completely
explained. It happened just as I left Saint-Cyr. I was full of ardor,
and the cravings of my heart sometimes blinded me. I say that they
sometimes blinded me; I repeat, blinded me, and this is true, for really
I must have been possessed to have kissed my aunt on the neck as I did
that day. But let that pass.

It was not that she was hardly worth it; my little auntie, as I used
to call her then, was the prettiest woman in the world--coquettish,
elegant; and what a foot! and, above all, that delightful little--I
don't know what--which is so fashionable now, and which tempts one
always to say too much.

When I say that I must have been possessed, it is because I think of the
consequences to which that kiss might have led. Her husband, General de
B., being my direct superior, it might have got me into a very awkward
position; besides, there is the respect due to one's family. Oh, I have
never failed in that.

But I do not know why I am recalling all these old recollections,
which have nothing in common with what I am about to relate to you. My
intention was simply to tell you that since my return from Mexico I go
pretty frequently to Madame de B.'s, as perhaps you do also, for she
keeps up a rather good establishment, receives every Monday evening,
and there is usually a crowd of people at her house, for she is very
entertaining. There is no form of amusement that she does not resort to
in order to keep up her reputation as a woman of fashion. I must own,
however, that I had never seen anything at her house to equal what I saw
last Monday.

I was in the ante-room, where the footman was helping me off with my
top-coat, when Jean, approaching me with a suspicion of mystery, said:
"My mistress expects to see you immediately, Monsieur, in her bedroom.
If you will walk along the passage and knock at the door at the end, you
will find her."

When one has just returned from the other side of the world, such words
sound queer.