ulpice's shoulder. Her tiny hands sought her
husband's hand, to press it beneath her cloak, as warm as a nest; and
after she had closed her eyes, overcome as she was by weariness, her
breathing seemed to become gradually almost as regular as in slumber,
and Sulpice Vaudrey recalled once more, beneath the light of the
chandeliers, that pretty blonde, with her half-bare arms and shoulders,
and strange eyes, who moistened her dry lips and smiled as she swallowed
her sherbet.

VI

In the pretty little Japanese salon, with its panels of sky-blue satin,
framed with gilded bamboo, Marianne was seated on the divan, half-facing
the duke as if to penetrate his inward thoughts, and she seemed to the
Castilian as she did to Vaudrey, to be a most charming creature amid
all those surroundings that might have been made expressly to match her
fair beauty. Moreover, with Rosas, her freedom of manner was entirely
different from that which she manifested to Sulpice, and she embraced
the young man with a passionate, fervent glance.

Jose felt himself grow pale in the presence of this exquisite creature
whose image, treasured in the depths of his heart, he had borne with him
wherever his fancy had led him to travel. He gazed at her as a man looks
at a woman whom he has long desired, but whom some urgent necessity has
kept out of his way, and who by chance is suddenly brought near him,
fate putting within our reach the dream--

She was prettier than ever, graceful and blooming, "more matured," like
a fruit whose color is more tempting to the appetite. Sabine had just
before very naturally brought these two together and instinctively, as
if they had to exchange many confidences, they had immediately sought a
retired spot away from that crowd and were seated there in that salon
where Vaudrey, already half-jealous, guessed that Marianne would be.

Yes, indeed, she had many confidences to impart to that man who had
suddenly entered the sphere of her life and had suddenly disappeared,
remaining during several years as if dead to her. It seemed to her as
they sat face to face that this flight of wasted time had made her still
younger, and Rosas, notwithstanding his cold demeanor, allowed his
former passion to be divined: the women one loves unmask one's secret
before a man can himself explain what he feels.

She felt a profound, sincere joy. She recalled a similar conversation
with Jose in his studio, that Oriental corner hidden in t