r, but with some
curiosity, nevertheless.

"I am looking out, in case the husband of the beautiful Jewess should
come home unexpectedly."

"Indeed? Well, mind and keep a good look out."

Saying this, the philosopher pretended to go away, but went into the
house through the garden entrance at the back. When he got into the first
room, he found a table laid for two, which had evidently only been left a
short time previously. His wife was sitting as usual at her bed room
window wrapped in her fur jacket, but her cheeks were suspiciously red,
and her dark eyes had not got their usual languishing look, but now
rested on her husband with a gaze which expressed at the same time
satisfaction and mockery. At that moment he kicked against an object on
the floor, which emitted a strange sound, which he picked up and examined
in the light. It was a pair of spurs.

"Who has been here with you?" the Talmudist said.

The Jewish Venus shrugged her shoulders contemptuously, but did not
reply.

"Shall I tell you? The Captain of Hussars has been with you."

"And why should he not have been here with me?" she said, smoothing the
fur on her jacket with her white hand.

"Woman! are you out of your mind?"

"I am in full possession of my senses," she replied, and a knowing smile
hovered round her red voluptuous lips. "But must I not also do my part,
in order that Messias may come and redeem us poor Jews?"

LA MORILLONNE

They called her _La Morillonne_[12] because of her black hair and of her
complexion, which resembled autumnal leaves, and because of her mouth
with thick purple lips, which were like blackberries, when she curled
them.

[Footnote 12: Black Grapes.]

That she should be born as dark as this in a district where everybody was
fair, and engendered by a father and mother with tow-colored hair and a
complexion like butter was one of the mysteries of atavism. One of her
female ancestors must have had an intimacy with one of those traveling
tinkers who, have gone about the country from time immemorial, with faces
the color of bistre and indigo, crowned by a wisp of light hair.

From that ancestor she derived, not only her dark complexion, but also
her dark soul, her deceitful eyes, whose depths were at times illuminated
by flashes of every vice, her eyes of an obstinate and malicious animal.

Handsome? Certainly not, nor even pretty. Ugly, with an absolute
ugliness! Such a false look! Her nose was flat, and h