ost transparent, her lips, scarlet in color, were shaped like a
bow; her cadaverous form bent forward; her eyelids fell over her
lack-lustre eyes, her face appeared to have two sides which didn't
belong to one another, each half having a totally different
expression; even the wrinkles didn't correspond. She wore her hair as
it was worn in the days of her youth, as it was worn when Caroline Pia
was married, and as it is possible it will be worn again. Her hands
were fine, transparent; they were not strong enough to cut the leaves
of a book with a paper-knife. Her whole being was nerveless and
sensitive. At the slightest noise she would shriek, be seized with a
cramp, or go off in hysterics. She had certain antipathies to beasts,
flowers, air, food, motion, and emotion. At the sight of a cat she was
ready to faint; if she saw a flesh-colored flower her blood grew
excited. Silver gave everything an unpleasant taste, so her spoons
were all of gold. If any women crossed their legs she sent them out of
the room. If the spoons, knives, or forks were by accident laid
crosswise on the table, she would not sit down; and if she were to
see velvet on any of her attendants she was thrown into a nervous
attack, from the bare idea that perhaps her hand might come in contact
with this electric and antipathetic substance.

Fortunately for her household her nervous fears kept her quiet at
night. She locked and double-locked the door of her room, and never
opened it until the morning came--no, not if the house were burning
over her head.

Fraulein Emerenzia was, as we have before said, the counterpart of her
mistress, in so far that she affected a close imitation of her ways,
for in her appearance she was a direct contrast, Emerenzia being a
round, short, fat woman, with a full face, the skin of which was so
tightly stretched that it was almost as white as the countess's; she
had a snub nose, which in secret was addicted to the vice of
snuff-taking. Her dress and her manner of doing her hair were
identical with the countess's fashion in each, only that the stiff-set
clothes had on her small body a humorous expression. She affected to
be as nerveless as the countess; her hands were as weak--they could
not break a chicken bone. Her eyes were as sensitive to light, her
antipathies were as numerous, and she was as prone to faints and
hysterics as her patroness. In this direction, indeed, she went
further. So soon as she observed that there