ent detracted from the candor of her face, or
the calm look of eyes immortalized long since in the sublime works of
Raphael; here were the same grace, the same repose as in those Virgins,
and now proverbial. There was a delightful contrast between the cheeks
of that face on which sleep had, as it were, given high relief to a
superabundance of life, and the antiquity of the heavy window with its
clumsy shape and black sill. Like those day-blowing flowers, which
in the early morning have not yet unfurled their cups, twisted by the
chills of night, the girl, as yet hardly awake, let her blue eyes wander
beyond the neighboring roofs to look at the sky; then, from habit,
she cast them down on the gloomy depths of the street, where they
immediately met those of her adorer. Vanity, no doubt, distressed her at
being seen in undress; she started back, the worn pulley gave way, and
the sash fell with the rapid run, which in our day has earned for this
artless invention of our forefathers an odious name, _Fenetre a la
Guillotine_. The vision had disappeared. To the young man the most
radiant star of morning seemed to be hidden by a cloud.

During these little incidents the heavy inside shutters that protected
the slight windows of the shop of the "Cat and Racket" had been removed
as if by magic. The old door with its knocker was opened back against
the wall of the entry by a man-servant, apparently coeval with the sign,
who, with a shaking hand, hung upon it a square of cloth, on which were
embroidered in yellow silk the words: "Guillaume, successor to Chevrel."
Many a passer-by would have found it difficult to guess the class of
trade carried on by Monsieur Guillaume. Between the strong iron bars
which protected his shop windows on the outside, certain packages,
wrapped in brown linen, were hardly visible, though as numerous as
herrings swimming in a shoal. Notwithstanding the primitive aspect of
the Gothic front, Monsieur Guillaume, of all the merchant clothiers in
Paris, was the one whose stores were always the best provided, whose
connections were the most extensive, and whose commercial honesty never
lay under the slightest suspicion. If some of his brethren in business
made a contract with the Government, and had not the required quantity
of cloth, he was always ready to deliver it, however large the number of
pieces tendered for. The wily dealer knew a thousand ways of extracting
the largest profits without being obliged, li