oom; and at last she was
obliged to confess to herself that he was the handsomest man she had
ever seen. Tall, slim, and yet muscular, the young, beardless Brazilian
had a head which any woman might envy him; features which were not only
beautiful and noble, but were also extremely delicate, with dark eyes
which possessed a wonderful charm, and thick, auburn curly hair, which
completed the attractiveness and the strangeness of his appearance.

They soon became acquainted, through a Prussian officer, whom the
Brazilian had requested to introduce him to the beautiful Polish
lady--for Frau von Chabert was taken for one in Vevey--and she, cold and
designing as she was, blushed slightly when he stood before her for the
first time; and when he gave her his arm he could feel her hand tremble
slightly on it. The same evening they went out riding together, the next
he was lying at her feet, and on the third she was his. For four weeks
the lovely Wanda and the Brazilian lived together as if they had been in
Paradise, but he could not deceive her searching eyes any longer.

For her sharp and practiced gaze had already discovered in him that
indefinable something which makes a man appear a suspicious character.
Any other woman would have been pained and horrified at such a
discovery, but she found the strange consolation in it, that her
handsome adorer had promised also to become a very interesting object
for her pursuit, and so she began systematically to watch the man who
lay unsuspectingly at her feet.

She soon found out that he was no conspirator, but she asked herself in
vain whether she was to look for a common swindler, an impudent
adventurer or perhaps even a criminal in him. The day that she had
foreseen soon came; the Brazilian's banker "unaccountably" had omitted
to send him any money, and so he borrowed some of her. "So he is a male
courtesan," she said to herself; and the handsome man soon required
money again, and she lent it to him, until at last he left suddenly, and
nobody knew where he had gone to; only this much, that he had left Vevey
as the companion of an old but wealthy Wallachian lady; and so this
time, clever Wanda was duped.

A year afterwards she met the Brazilian unexpectedly at Lucca, with an
insipid-looking, light-haired, thin Englishwoman on his arm. Wanda stood
still and looked at him steadily, but he glanced at her quite
indifferently; he did not choose to know her again.

The next morning, ho