her still a child. But it was a child who might be as strong as an
angel; and, like the angel, once hurt in her nature, she would be
implacable.

"Coldness on that face must no doubt be death to those on whom her eyes
had smiled, for whom her set lips had parted, for those whose soul had
drunk in the melody of that voice, lending to her words the poetry of
song by its peculiar intonation. Inhaling the perfume of violets that
accompanied her, I understood how the memory of this wife had arrested
the Count on the threshold of debauchery, and how impossible it would be
ever to forget a creature who really was a flower to the touch, a flower
to the eye, a flower of fragrance, a heavenly flower to the soul....
Honorine inspired devotion, chivalrous devotion, regardless of reward. A
man on seeing her must say to himself:

"'Think, and I will divine your thought; speak, and I will obey. If my
life, sacrificed in torments, can procure you one day's happiness, take
my life, I will smile like a martyr at the stake, for I shall offer that
day to God, as a token to which a father responds on recognizing a
gift to his child.' Many women study their expression, and succeed in
producing effects similar to those which would have struck you at
first sight of the Countess; only, in her, it was all the outcome of a
delightful nature, that inimitable nature went at once to the heart.
If I tell you all this, it is because her soul, her thoughts, the
exquisiteness of her heart, are all we are concerned with, and you would
have blamed me if I had not sketched them for you.

"I was very near forgetting my part as a half-crazy lout, clumsy, and by
no means chivalrous.

"'I am told, madame, that you are fond of flowers?'

"'I am an artificial flower-maker,' said she. 'After growing flowers, I
imitate them, like a mother who is artist enough to have the pleasure of
painting her children.... That is enough to tell you that I am poor and
unable to pay for the concession I am anxious to obtain from you?'

"'But how,' said I, as grave as a judge, 'can a lady of such rank as
yours would seem to be, ply so humble a calling? Have you, like me,
good reasons for employing your fingers so as to keep your brains from
working?'

"'Let us stick to the question of the wall,' said she, with a smile.

"'Why, we have begun at the foundations,' said I. 'Must not I know which
of us ought to yield to the other in behalf of our suffering, or, if you
choose,