on, as it were, of its former
transparency. But her eyes seemed rather to have been made of metal,
which had turned rusty, and really if pewter could rust I should have
compared them to pewter covered with rust. They had the dead color of
pewter, and at the same time, they emitted a glance which was the color
of reddish water.

But it was not until some time later that I tried to define them thus
approximately by retrospective analysis. At that moment, being
altogether incapable of such an effort, I could only establish in my own
mind the idea of extreme decrepitude and horrible old age, which they
produced in my imagination.

Have I said that they were set in very puffy eyelids, which had no
lashes whatever, and on her forehead without wrinkles there was not a
vestige of eyebrow? When I tell you this, and considering their dull
look beneath the hair of an octogenarian, it is not surprising that
Ledantec and I said in a low voice at the sight of this woman, who was
evidently young:

"Oh! poor, poor old woman!"

Her great age was further accentuated by the terrible poverty that was
revealed by her dress. If she had been better dressed, her youthful
looks would, perhaps, have struck us more, but her thin shawl, which was
all that she had over her chemise, her single petticoat which was full
of holes, and almost in rags, and which did not nearly reach to her bare
feet, her straw hat with ragged feathers and with ribbons of no
particular color through age, it all seemed so ancient, so prodigiously
antique!

From what remote superannuated, abolished period did they all spring?
One did not venture to guess, and by a perfectly natural association of
ideas, one seemed to infer that the unfortunate creature herself, was as
old as her clothes were. Now, by _one_, I mean by Ledantec and myself,
that is to say, by two men who were abominably drunk and who were
arguing with the special logic of intoxication.

It was also under the softening influence of alcohol that we looked at
the vague smile on those lips with the teeth of a child, without
stopping to reflect on the beauty of those youthful teeth, and seeing
nothing except her fixed and almost idiotic smile, which no longer
contrasted with the dull expression of her looks, but, on the contrary,
strengthened them. For in spite of her teeth, it was the smile of an old
woman in our imagination, and as for me, I was really pleased at the
thought of being so acute when I infer