at with
fixed eyes, motionless and sullen. Misled by my puny appearance, a
woman--taking me for a sleepy child--slid softly into the place beside
me, with the motion of a bird as she drops upon her nest. Instantly I
breathed the woman-atmosphere, which irradiated my soul as, in after
days, oriental poesy has shone there. I looked at my neighbor, and was
more dazzled by that vision than I had been by the scene of the fete.

If you have understood this history of my early life you will guess
the feelings which now welled up within me. My eyes rested suddenly
on white, rounded shoulders where I would fain have laid my
head,--shoulders faintly rosy, which seemed to blush as if uncovered for
the first time; modest shoulders, that possessed a soul, and reflected
light from their satin surface as from a silken texture. These shoulders
were parted by a line along which my eyes wandered. I raised myself to
see the bust and was spell-bound by the beauty of the bosom, chastely
covered with gauze, where blue-veined globes of perfect outline were
softly hidden in waves of lace. The slightest details of the head were
each and all enchantments which awakened infinite delights within
me; the brilliancy of the hair laid smoothly above a neck as soft
and velvety as a child's, the white lines drawn by the comb where my
imagination ran as along a dewy path,--all these things put me, as it
were, beside myself. Glancing round to be sure that no one saw me, I
threw myself upon those shoulders as a child upon the breast of its
mother, kissing them as I laid my head there. The woman uttered a
piercing cry, which the noise of the music drowned; she turned, saw
me, and exclaimed, "Monsieur!" Ah! had she said, "My little lad, what
possesses you?" I might have killed her; but at the word "Monsieur!" hot
tears fell from my eyes. I was petrified by a glance of saintly anger,
by a noble face crowned with a diadem of golden hair in harmony with
the shoulders I adored. The crimson of offended modesty glowed on her
cheeks, though already it was appeased by the pardoning instinct of
a woman who comprehends a frenzy which she inspires, and divines the
infinite adoration of those repentant tears. She moved away with the
step and carriage of a queen.

I then felt the ridicule of my position; for the first time I realized
that I was dressed like the monkey of a barrel organ. I was ashamed.
There I stood, stupefied,--tasting the fruit that I had stolen,
cons