ttle, waged on the ocean at their own peril
and risk, with those rivals who contend with France for Asia and
Africa, and for the purpose of extending the French name and fame over
the opposite continents which touch on the Mediterranean.

"One Sunday, after a long excursion on the sea with Madame Lamartine,
we were told that a woman, modest and timid in her deportment, had
come in the diligence from Aix to Marseilles, and for four or five
hours had been waiting for us in a little orange grove next between
the villa and the garden. I suffered my wife to go into the house, and
passed myself into the orange grove to receive the stranger. I had
no acquaintance with any one at Aix, and was utterly ignorant of the
motive which could have induced my visitor to wait so long and so
patiently for me.

"When I went into the orange grove, I saw a woman still youthful, of
about thirty-six or forty years of age. She wore a working-dress which
betokened little ease and less luxury, a robe of striped _Indienne_,
discolored and faded; a cotton handkerchief on her neck, her black
hair neatly braided, but like her shoes, somewhat soiled by the dust
of the road. Her features were fine and graceful, with that mild
and docile Asiatic expression, which renders any muscular tension
impossible, and gives utterance only to inspiring and attractive
candor. Her mouth was possibly a line too large, and her brow was
unwrinkled as that of a child. The lower part of her face was very
full, and was joined by full undulations, altogether feminine however
in their character, to a throat which was large and somewhat distended
at the middle, like that of the old Greek statues. Her glance had the
expression of the moonlight of her country rather than of its sun.
It was the expression of timidity mingled with confidence in the
indulgence of another, emanating from a forgetfulness of her own
nature. In fine, it was the image of good-feeling, impressed as well
on her air as on her heart, and which seem confident that others are
like her. It was evident that this woman, who was yet so agreeable,
must in her youth have been most attractive. She yet had what the
people (the language of which is so expressive) call the _seed of
beauty_, that _prestige_, that ray, that star, that essence, that
indescribable something, which attracts, charms, and enslaves us. When
she saw me, her embarrassment and blushes enabled me to contemplate
her calmly and to feel myself at